UNRA cancels Musita-Lumino-Busia-Majanji road contract

Jun 15, 2017

In a letter dated June 12, 2017 UNRA Executive Director, Allen Kagina, directed the Chinese company to vacate the site immediately and handover all project documents and items to the site engineer without delay.

The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has terminated the contract for the construction of the Musita-Lumino-Busia-Majanji Road that had been given to China Railway Group 18 Company Limited over incompetency and performance below the contractual standards.

UNRA also cited the contractor's failure to mobilise resource and equipment to ensure that the work was done in time and persistent lack of efforts to show commitment to the job.

In a letter dated June 12, 2017 UNRA Executive Director, Allen Kagina, directed the Chinese company to vacate the site immediately and handover all project documents and items to the site engineer without delay.

The cancellation of the contract comes in the wake of last month's inspection visit by Kagina and UNRA officials which revealed that contractor had only done 12% of the works on the roads and yet he had less than three months to end.

The road which passes through four districts of Mayuge, Bugiri, Namayingo and Busia was flagged off by President Yoweri Museveni in February 2015 in a ceremony at Mwesiga, Mayuge District. ­

The road which was unsealed gravel surface was supposed to be upgraded to class II bitumen surface and scheduled to be completed by August 2017.

The contractor is of China Railway Construction Corporation 18th Bureau Group at a budgeted cost of sh207b. It was supposed to offer an alternative route to Kenya and much shorter than the current Jinja-Bugiri highway.

A communications officer at UNRA told the New Vision that shortly after Kagina's visit, UNRA wrote to the firm indicating their intention to cancel the contract.  Mark Ssali UNRA head of Communications said they would initiate a new procurement process aimed at getting a new contractor to take over the site and complete the works.

In April this year, officials from the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control raided two sites of the China Railway Group 18 in Mayuge district and arrested over 39 illegal Chinese nationals working with the company. Most of those arrested did not have the requisite work permits and documents allowing them to stay in Uganda.

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