{"id":26518,"date":"2022-02-17T18:17:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T18:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=26518"},"modified":"2022-02-17T16:38:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T16:38:59","slug":"govt-defends-extra-charges-in-entebbe-airport-expansion-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/govt-defends-extra-charges-in-entebbe-airport-expansion-contract","title":{"rendered":"Govt defends extra charges in Entebbe airport expansion contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Government has defended variations in the Shs700 billion project to expand and upgrade Entebbe International Airport.<\/p>\n

The Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala, together with officials from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) were responding to queries raised about a $3.4 million (about Shs12 billion) variation in the cost of the project.<\/p>\n

They were appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase).<\/p>\n

MPs were concerned that the lead contractors, China Communications and Construction Company (CCCC), are asking for additional funding before completing the project. MPs demanded to know how the extra charges were came about.<\/p>\n

The Director for Navigation at UCAA, Mr Ayub Soma, said the variation arose after an inspection and validation exercise was done by officials from the European Union, a key destination for flights out of Uganda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was realised that there were new requirements which Entebbe Airport had to fulfil and these touched on safety and handling procedures for cargo and mail,\u201d Mr Soma said. \u201cIt included the modification of processes and there was a change in some kind of infrastructure to fit the EU market. This resulted in the change of scope which we had to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes included ensuring safety measures, identifying another contractor, Tristar, to build a bigger and safer fuel hydrant at the airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2017, we received, through the government, a company called Tristar that was serving the UN at that time and the proposal that came in from Tristar is to provide a fuel firm of 20 million litres [because] our current capacity is 7.5 million litres,\u201d Mr Soma said.<\/p>\n

He added that Tristar\u2019s proposal catered for safety measures, offered for higher storage capacity of fuel to service aircraft at the airport for about a month and the hydrant was to be digitally smart.<\/p>\n

Gen Katumba said Entebbe Airport loses a lot of revenue to Kenya, which is preferred for exports of fruits and other perishable cargo.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, most of our fresh foods are exported through Nairobi… Our products are taken across the border, repackaged and rebranded \u2018Made in Kenya\u2019 because our facility wasn\u2019t meeting international standards. The size of the airport wasn\u2019t also sufficient to be taking on some of the aircrafts. And that is one of the reasons it was important that we expand the airport and bring it to international standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the shadow minister for Works and Transport on the committee, Mr Yusuf Nsibambi, also MP Mawokota South, said they were less interested in the technical arguments and more in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us as an accountability committee were not so much into the engineering [consideration],\u201d Mr Nsibambi said, demanding to know if due process was followed in identifying and awarding the contract to the contractor, China Communications Construction Company.<\/p>\n

Gen Katumba said he was not in charge of the ministry at the time of the award of the contract and could not respond immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow for me to be able to say what happened in 2012 and to know even how the bilateral [agreement] came into being is difficult. And even if we go round and round, I may not give you a satisfying answer,\u201d he told Parliament.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt may be asking too much for me to be expected to know its whole origin. Good enough, the people who were there are not dead, they are there. You could call them and possibly ask them. How did we come to this?\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has defended variations in the Shs700 billion project to expand and upgrade Entebbe International Airport. The Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala, together with officials from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) were responding to queries raised about a $3.4 million (about Shs12 billion) variation in the cost of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":26517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-26518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nGovt defends extra charges in Entebbe airport expansion contract - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Government has defended variations in the Shs700 billion project to expand and upgrade Entebbe International Airport. 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