The commission of inquiry into mismanagement of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has directed police to investigate Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi and former Terego County MP Kassiano Wadri for alleged bribe-taking to protect implicated thieving UNRA officials.
In its report released on Thursday, the commission says UNRA lost Shs4 trillion in seven years through dubious deals, notably through collusion between its own staff and contractors; inflating cost of road projects; and delayed action on recommendations listed in the Auditor General’s reports.
The report says the Auditor General submitted to the commission six sets of his annual accountability reports for 2008/09 up to 2013/14 but none had been debated by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by 2015 when the commission started its inquiry.
Mr Nandala and Mr Wadri headed PAC at different times between the 2009 and 2015. Auditor General’s reports are submitted to PAC which is mandated to examine them and report back to Parliament with recommendations for action to be taken.
“The commission notes that this was not done. The chairpersons of PAC over the past two parliamentary terms were summoned to appear before the commission to explain their roles but they invoked their parliamentary immunity and were not interviewed,” reads the report of the commission headed by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.
The report says Mr Nandala and Mr Wadri refused to respond to respond to allegations of corruption against them when the commission asked them.
“The commission was left pondering over disturbing and unanswered questions regarding allegations that the two respective chairpersons, Mr Mafabi and Mr Wadri took kick-backs from the top management of UNRA to suppress incriminating AG reports as hapless and helpless World Bank-funded expatriates were incessantly hounded and victimised by PAC.
We respected their immunity and proceed to recommend the matter regarding the two be referred to the CIID [Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department] for further investigation to prove the veracity of the corruption claims against them,” Justice Bamugemereire stated in the report.
Mr Nandala could not be readily reached for comment as his known phone numbers remained switched off. But Mr Wadri, laughed off the recommendation for investigations against him and described it as “interesting”.
“Well, let CIID swing into action if they can. I have never interacted with the UNRA board or any top managers, so I find it interesting to say I was paid to sit on the AG’s reports,” Mr Wadri said.
He admitted he received “invitation” to appear before the eight-member commission chaired by High Court Judge Bamugemereire but said “I was in Juba on official duties at the time. However, I wrote back telling them they had violated procedures. As chairperson of a parliamentary committee, they had to channel the request through the Speaker to whom I am answerable. But, I am also aware the Speaker wrote to them that procedures must be followed. So if they did not sort it out, then what? Now that Ms Kadaga is still Speaker, let them ask her,” Wadri added.
The commission’s report also recommended the amendment to the Constitution to give powers to the Auditor General to furnish copies of his reports to a committee comprising the Director of Public Prosecutions, the CIID and the Inspectorate of Government which would ensure implementation of the recommendations and prosecution of culprits without delay.
The report says this would serve as a control measure against the vast powers vested in Parliament which is seemingly overloaded with work.
For example, the AG in his 2011 report noted that UNRA had not paid Shs146b to various contractors and consultants on several road projects because of failure by government to meet the commitments made during the year. The report says this led to extra claims for interest by the contractors resulting in excess expenditure.
The commission named a number of construction companies and asked government to blacklist them for inappropriate behaviour in many road projects, which caused government huge financial losses.
They are: Dott Services, General Nile Company, Energo Projekt, Professional Engineering Consultants and LEA International Ltd Canada, in joint venture with LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd India, and KOM Consultancy.
The report also recommended that “directors of the above firms be “apprehended for causing losses to government and if they are foreigners turned citizens, their citizenship should be reviewed and possibly revoked after recovery of proven associated funds”.
“UNRA staff who were involved in the collusion are culpable and should be prosecuted. By this recommendation, the relevant professional bodies, including Engineers Registration Board (ERB) and Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) are made aware so as to take disciplinary action against the individuals,” the report says.
The report, however, does not show whether the named companies were interviewed to explain the queries about them.
The report was submitted to President Museveni on Wednesday and indicates that UNRA officials “successfully colluded” with construction firms and consultants on almost every road project in the last seven years.
The report cited a company which was awarded four construction contracts and one consultancy firm, which won bids to supervise the four contracts.
“It is difficult to explain this coincidence when one considers three corollary pieces of evidence: All these contracts – with the said contractor and consultant – were managed by the same contract manager, Eng Godfrey Kaaya Mukasa,” the report reads in part.
Mr Kaaya served as UNRA’s regional manager for eastern region and last year was among the first top managers to be fired in June last year by the new executive director Allen Kagina’s administration.
The report, for example, says Dott Services was paid billions of Shillings upfront before any works had started. It also cited more than Shs11b paid for Mbale–Soroti road and more thanShs4.4b for Tororo–Mbale road.
“In both instances the money was paid before any works were executed. What is worse, there is no evidence any work was ever executed later in lieu of these hefty payments. This means that in both cases, UNRA paid for nothing,” the commission states.
The commission also said there were other dubious payments involving Dott Services in a joint venture with other construction companies for work under the supervision of KOM Consultants.
“In this case Dott Services irregularly claimed for 70 per cent of the contract sum to be paid in foreign currency. Sadly, for the people of Uganda, Dott Services was successful in their claim. In this fraudulent transaction alone the government lost over Shs4b,” the commission states.
The commission said Dott Services has implemented nine contracts with UNRA of which eight are funded by the government while one was funded by the European Union.
“All the nine contracts were characterised by related issues including delayed completion of works, claims for costs and undeserved VoPs. The director, Mr Venugopal Rao, failed to explain why Dott Services only bids for government-funded contracts,” the report says.
The report also cites several cases of collusion between UNRA staff and contractors on Kawempe-Kafu road project by EnergoProjektNiskogradnja and supervised by Africon Ltd who changed name to “Aurecon Amei Ltd”.
“Energo has been engaged with unending works on the same road for nine years since 2007,” the report reads. It indicates that UNRA contract managers and engineers have committed colossal sums of money as payment to the consultant to supervise the same works over the years.
“UNRA paid the contractor $3.2m (Shs11b) as prolongation costs resulting from poor planning by deploying the contractor on site without the supervising consultant rendering the contractor’s equipment idle.”
Committee
The five-member Judicial Commission chaired by Justice Bamugemereire was appointed by President Museveni in June 2015 to investigate mismanagement, abuse of office and corrupt practices in UNRA. The commission took close to eight months investigating the road projects and interrogating various officials.
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