Africa-Press – Uganda. It is being reported that the Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has tasked the leadership at Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to explain the delays in the completion of Mpigi-Busega Expressway.
Rt. Hon. Tayebwa on Tuesday, 07 November 2023 led a team of legislators from the Physical Infrastructure and National Economy committees on an inspection of on-going construction works at Katonga Bridge and Mpigi – Busega Expressway road.
“Myself and the current Chairman of the National Economy (Hon. John Bosco Ikojo), strongly participated in the approval of the money for Mpigi – Busega Expressway project.
That was around June 2016 and we expected it to be done in three years. In 2021, it should have been commissioned. We are now in 2023 and we are seeing the progress is extremely very slow,” Tayebwa said.
The 35km was contracted to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation in Joint Venture with China Railway 19th Bureau Group (U) Ltd at a contract sum of Shs547.5billion.
Project management
It has become increasingly difficult to understand if while executing these government projects, any regard is given to the cardinal principles in Project Management which put emphasis on executing a contracted project in the given agreed time frame and within the given agreed budget!
What we see consistently is that no government project, whether it is the construction of Power Stations, Bridges, Office Blocks or construction of Railway or Roads is always unexplainable delays and increase in allocated or budgeted costs for the project.
This makes one wonder if really genuine and proper feasibility studies are undertaken before arriving at the production of the project designs, project cost estimates and project construction duration period.
With prior proper feasibility studies undertaken, how else can the construction of 35km envisaged to take 3 years end up lasting beyond 8 years if at all we are to take UNRA’s new commitment to complete this job in yet another 48 months period (three years) from yesterday!
What must not be forgotten and what maybe UNRA didn’t disclose to the Deputy Speaker is that the extension of the project completion period goes with the adjustment in the project cost. It implies that the budget figure of Shs 547.5billion that was initially negotiated with the Chinese contractors is definitely going to be revised upwards.
It can therefore be concluded that due to poor project management, construction of any government project in Uganda doesn’t only become very costly in terms of the total amount expended on any project but also it causes untold inconveniences and losses to the project affected persons, which in a domino way of things does adversely impact the overall economy of the country.
We are seeing this with the Mpigi – Busega Expressway, the Kampala City Flyover, the Kampala – Jinja Road rehabilitation and indeed with many other projects going on in the country.
In construction, it is a global practice that in execution contracts, provisions are deliberately put that reward completion on time and within budget just as non conformity or breach of the agreed terms is also penalized.
In our case, there has never been a single case reported of any contractor receiving a reward for completing any given task in time and without asking for more money.
We have also never heard of any contracting company being penalised for delaying to complete the given task in time.
Instead we always hear of stories of those companies talking of deviations in the original design plans which do occasion them to ask for more money which sometimes is even more than half of the original contract price!
What is clear is that there is a need for our project planners to up their planning if this country is going to deliver on the overall aspirations of our people.
Source: Nile Post
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