UNRA officials created ghost kilometers on roads

Jul 27, 2015

ASSISTANT lead counsel to a commission probing alleged fraud at UNRA has said the authority may have created extra 10 kilometers to make fictitious payments

By John Agaba

 

ASSISTANT lead counsel to a commission probing alleged fraud at Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Mary Kutesa, said the authority may have created extra 10 kilometers on the Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya Road to make fictitious payments.

 

This was after key witness Pamela Ayebare admitted the original design of the oil road (supposed to end at 83km) was abandoned for a new one ending at 92km, but failed to give evidence.

 

President Yoweri Museveni’s probe team, chaired by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, pressed Ayebare to prove to the commission the existence of the extra 10 kilometers on the strip-map, used for compensation.

 

She had the strip-map at her table.

 

But the head of the contracts committee at UNRA asked for more time to introduce the evidence.

 

“These 10km, from (where the original design stopped at) 83km to 92km are not there?” assistant lead counsel asked.

 

She pressed the witness to prove to the commission that the extra 10km were not just created as a mechanism to make fictitious payments.

 

To all these questions, Ayebare said she needed more time. But the strip-map referenced was her working document as contracts manager. And the commission had given her two weeks to present it.

 

During the inquiry at Imperial Royale Hotel, Ayebere was also pressed to state her role in the procurement of MAPCON Consults.

 

She admitted to sitting at both the evaluation and contracts committees at UNRA that selected the firm.

 

Members of the commission are Eng. Patrick Rusongoza, Ben Okello Luwum, Abraham Nkata and Richard Mungati.

 

Kutesa pressed her whether she knew that sitting on both committees was unlawful as per the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act. All committees must be independent.

 

During examination, the commission discovered that UNRA awarded the tender to MAPCON who had scored the second lowest mark (40%) of the over 10 firms that expressed interest in the bid.

 

MAPCON did not even meet the minimum requirements to be considered, as per the PPDA Act.

 

The committees also disregarded guidance from the Solicitor General not to procure MAPCON as it was “non-compliant”.

 

Second witness Robert Odongpiny, a lands acquisition officer at UNRA, told the commission they knocked back MAPCON at the first evaluations committee because it did not meet the minimum requirements.

 

But following advice from the contracts committee, they reconsidered their decision.

 

Odongpiny told the commission that he has a Master of Science in Land Management from Makerere University. He joined UNRA in 2009.

 

Assistant lead counsel Mary Kutesa said there were tit-bits in the selection of MAPCON that still did not add up.

 

The witnesses failed to prove existence of the two firms — Reagent and EMMA consults — fronted to compete with MAPCON.

 

“They can’t tell their physical addresses. It is likely they are ghost firms, and MAPCON didn’t have a competitor at all,” Kutesa said.

 

During the inquiry, the commission heard that UNRA kept working with MAPCON even after they unearthed ghost payments on the Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya Road.

 

To its shock, the commission heard that UNRA actually renewed MAPCON’s contract after unearthing the scam.

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