Ngilu to explain rise in dam project cost

Water minister Charity Ngilu at a press conference on November 6, 2010. Mrs Ngilu told journalists last week that she has refused to pay the increased costs, which she put at Sh652 million, and that Mr Kiunjuri was behind efforts to force the corporation to pay the amount. Photo/FILE 

By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, November 14 2010 at 22:00

The cost of a major project by the Water ministry has shot up by more than 30 per cent because of structural changes on the site.

Umaa Dam, in Water minister Charity Ngilu’s Kitui County, had been projected to cost Sh824 million, but with only 58 per cent of the work done, the contractor has already claimed Sh816 million.

An appraisal conducted in August shows that engineers discovered they would have to drill 2,020 metres to secure the dam’s foundation whereas the original plan had envisaged that they would only have to dig 450 metres.

With about 1,600 metres concluded by August, this alone had increased the cost of the construction by Sh150 million, and the total increase now stands at Sh313.9 million.

The limit on variations on a contract for a public project is 15 per cent. Anything beyond that is treated as a new contract and would require that the tender committee and a technical team verify and approve it.

Umaa Dam is one of the projects on which Mrs Ngilu is expected to report to Parliament’s Committee on Lands and Natural Resources in 21 days.

Mrs Ngilu was ordered to do so last Thursday when she appeared before the team chaired by Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi.

It also emerged last week that the ministry and its implementing agency, the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation, were uncomfortable with the increase of costs at Umaa Dam.

The dam has been at the centre of a storm embroiling Mrs Ngilu and her former assistant minister, Mr Mwangi Kiunjuri.

An appraisal report seen by the Nation says the costs increased due to changes to the diversion channel and the spillway after changes were noted in the soil structure when construction had already started.

Mrs Ngilu told journalists last week that she has refused to pay the increased costs, which she put at Sh652 million, and that Mr Kiunjuri was behind efforts to force the corporation to pay the amount.

But she seemed to change tack when she appeared before the committee. This drew the MPs’ attention, and Mr Musyimi said it was necessary that preliminary work and research be carried out before construction begins.

“It is worrying that surveys were not done,” Mr Musyimi said. Mrs Ngilu’s defence is that she has revived the ministry, which is now “providing water to Kenyans”.

The minister said that apart from an audit of the water corporation by KPMG, the Efficiency Monitoring Unit, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and the Kenya National Audit Office are also looking into activities in her ministry.