Prime
Energy officials ignore warning on Karuma
Karuma Dam under construction. Photo by Paul Tajuba
What you need to know:
Shoddy. There are disagreements and confusion over the quality output of Karuma and Isimba dams.
KAMPALA. Energy Infratech, the Indian company at the centre of controversy for overseeing shoddy construction works at the Karuma and Isimba dams, has passed the buck to the Ministry of Energy, saying bureaucrats have paid a blind eye to the red flags it raises.
Mr Velusamy Vasu, the chief executive officer Energy Infratech, who jetted into the country this week to attend a crisis meeting precipitated by President Museveni’s March 22 letter to Energy minister Irene Muloni to urgently look into shoddy works at the two dams, told this newspaper on Wednesday his company’s hands were tied after the ministry’s officials gave a cold shoulder to their technical instructions and observations.
“When I observe noncompliance, I notify the ministry and the contractor; I cannot get kiboko (cane) or hire hooligans or an AK-47 and put the Chinese at gun point for not following my advice. That is where the ministry must intervene and I have written 1,000 plus letters which they have ignored! What should I do? Who is not playing their role?”
Saturday Monitor has seen e-mails and letters in which the Indian firm raises issues about the two dams for the ministry’s intervention.
In a May 9, 2014 letter to the ministry’s permanent secretary, Mr Kabagambe Kaliisa, titled; ‘Karuma Hydropower project (phase II) contract agreement regarding violation by the EPC contractor’, the owner’s engineer refers to several letters, including one on April 7, 2013 on violation of designs, drawings, and the contract; and another on April 2 the same year on restoration of damages and protection, noncompliance with contractual conditions and start of underground works without approvals from the consultant.
Reports matter
The letter reads in part: “Please refer to the letters above, we have flagged the matter with Sinohydro in almost all meetings since March 2014 that the tunnel work should be stopped until the slopes are fully protected in accordance with the approved drawings and after the mobilisation for the tunneling is complete in all respects,” adding, “Sinohydro is constantly violating our instructions and we are concerned that this is not a desirable situation. The supports provided by the designers in the drawings take into consideration certain safety factors in addition to various technical inputs.”
On March 1, 2014, the firm wrote to Sinohydro and copied in the ministry, “We direct you to stop the grouting works immediately. Grout pump is not available with you and we have not established the grouting criteria. We are surprised as to how you have started the grouting works. Your site team is not aware of the start of the grouting works at the site and your subcontractor is proceeding ahead without understanding the contract. Every new activity has to be approved by us and this is mandatory.”
Again, despite this letter, Sinohydro went on with the work as the ministry took to silence mode.
Mid last year, this newspaper understands from credible sources, the working relationship between the contractor and consultant soured as attempts to cause the ministry to intervene hit a dead end.
Internal Security Organisation chief Ronnie Balya commissioned a team to follow up the noncompliance raised by Energy Infratech and inaction by the ministry and the intelligence briefing was forwarded to the commander-in-chief who referred the matter back to Energy for action.
“Why is everyone raising issues with the consultant and quiet about the contractor? In any case, our investigation last year revealed the consultant had been raising the red flags but the ministry kept covering up for Sinohydro and we suspect they are shy before the Chinese because money exchanged hands. One of the consultants from AF Consultants has reportedly resigned because of adamancy by the ministry and Sinohydro so the ministry has a lot of explaining to do,” the source at ISO told this reporter in an interview on Wednesday. However, UEGCL chief executive officer Harrison Mutikanga said Mr Sher Baluch was on leave until Sunday.
Mr Henry Bidasala, the Karuma HPP project manager in the Ministry of Energy, said he didn’t want to be dragged into debating government business in the media before responding to the issues the consultant raised, “What did you want us to address among the issues?”
Mr Bidasala yesterday told this newspaper all entities involved in the projects must work for the good of the project and the ministry will rein in should things run out of hand.
Mr Paul Mubiru, the ministry’s accounting officer, who is copied in the communications, was not available for a comment as his known telephone number has been off while Mr Kabagambe Kaliisa, the permanent secretary, could not be reached for a comment by press time as repeated phone calls went unanswered.
Attempts to reach the Sinohydro project manager, Mr Song Yijun, were fruitless too. He was not at the office when our reporter visited and calls to the deputy project manager, Mr Liu Yu, went unanswered.
What it means
Should shoddy works continue at the two dams, hydropower experts fear the country will suffer the Gilgel Gibe fate. The Gilgel Gibe III Dam is a 243-metre high roller-compacted concrete dam with a related hydroelectric power plant on the Omo river in Ethiopia. In February 2010, a critical water-passage tunnel in the dam collapsed, sparking fiery debate on the quality of works.
Caterina Amicucci of the Italian group CRBM said then: “Gilgel Gibe demonstrates that cutting corners does not speed up development, but can rather produce costly disasters.”
In an interview with this newspaper on Tuesday, an energy expert familiar with the Karuma and Isimba hydropower projects said: “I foresaw all this happening and we might return to 1993 when Uganda Electricity Board (UEB) had to stop Sietco from extension works of the Owen Falls Dam with 18 per cent works done and bring on board Salini at a higher cost and the project stalling for three years.”
At the time the Chinese firm was running below the timelines and was constipated by financial hardships, including haemorrhage from payments of bribes. The expert said in the bidding process UEB, the precursor to UEGCL, turned down advice to take up a firm that did the construction design and asked for $109m to put the project together.
Energo Projekt had in its bid asked for $78m and Sietco $71m. UEB went for the lowest bidder but at 18 per cent of works complete later stopped Sietco having paid $43m. Government had to now pay Salini $89m bringing the total project cost to $132m, $23m above the highest bidder’s fee.
Already President Museveni has advised Ms Muloni to, if need arises, cancel the contract of the consultant. Should things run out of hand, the same could happen to the contractor, opening a floodgate of litigation but also pushing up the price of building the two dams.
“We will not know what we have built and time will tell us. There are qualities you only see when the project is coming together. If you have no supervision at this stage you will mess up the project. We should have hired a construction consultant and not a paper tiger like Energy Infratech,” he said.
Not much progress
Sadly though, the source said UEGCL’s stop gap measure by hiring alternate consultants will not yield fruit as intrigue rages, essentially leaving the dams unsupervised and the Chinese companies at large in a country lacking capacity to supervise its own projects.
At the very worst, if the dams are completed with the in-built capacity of 600MW (Karuma) and 183MW (Isimba), they will not be able to produce the projected capacity due to incessant repairs and faults in the plant.
