The Minister of Works and Transport Gen Edward Katumba Wamala has asked the contractor of the Muyembe-Nakapiripirit road project M/s Polat Yol Yapi Sanayi Ve Ticaret to finish in the stipulated time or suffer penalties of violating the contract.
Gen Katumba made his warnings on Sunday during the inspection visit together with the State Minister for Works Musa Ecweru, and the Executive Director, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) Ms Allen Kagina where he said that due to the slow pace of the contractor government has put in place a new supervision mechanism.
“Today, together with a technical team have come on the ground to physically witness the state of affairs following a number of concerns raised on the project. We have been encouraged by what we have seen on the ground in terms of the new efforts to salvage and recover the time lost.
“The Contractor has made a commitment to deliver the project within the project timelines. We think the Contractor will be able to recover and needs support to recover. We can also guarantee you that the Government of Uganda will not lose any money. We have put in place a new supervision mechanism to ensure we have eyes on and hands on the project, including regular monitoring and supervision of the project by the project team,” said Gen Katumba.
Gen Katumba’s warnings came as a result of a lot of complaints that were raised pinning the Turkish contractor M/s Polat Yol Yapi Sanayi Ve Ticaret for being too slow and its shoddy performance thus violating the contract.
The Muyembe—Nakapiripirit road project (92.2Km) was co-funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Government of Uganda (GoU) at a contract sum of Shs399.9bn and is expected to last 36 months and an additional 12 months as the Defects Liability Period for the Contractor to address any identified snags/defects on the road.
The project is located in the North-Eastern part of Uganda and if finished, is anticipated to meet the current and future traffic demands through improving access to social amenities, markets for agricultural produce, and economic opportunities.
The project starts from Muyembe at the end of the tarmac road from Mbale and ends in the centre of Nakapiripirit town, traversing the districts of Bulambuli, Kween and Nakapiripirit. And as part of the National Roads Development and Maintenance Programme, the Government designated funds to Muyembe – Nakapiripirit road to change it from its current gravel standard to a paved standard. On 30th March M/s Polat Yol Yapi Sanayi Ve Ticaret issued a commencement order.
However, since that date, the contractor has exhibited low and unsatisfactory progress in civil works occasioned by poor resources mobilization including equipment and funds which forced UNRA to issued a notice to the Contractor to correct in order to improve performance.
The contract provides for penalties for non-performance including termination of the Contractor. The Contractor appealed for more time to mobilize equipment and personnel which time was given.
At first, the contractor blamed their progress on the Covid-19 lockdowns, and UNRA instructed them to prepare a Recovery Action Plan with clear actions and timelines on how they intend to recover the lost time which they submitted on 15 April 2021, according to sources from the ground, although there is time lost, the progress is still low where last year July 2021 only 3 per cent of the physical works had been done.
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