Rwanda Parliament has mandated the government with monitoring and potentially taking punitive action on an Indian firm that failed to deliver a project for rural electrification.
The suggestion came out during an impact assessment undertaken by a Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Security of the first Scaling Up Energy Access Project (SEAP I), which stated that project delivery was unsuccessful as previously anticipated.
Two contractors – Angelique International and Overseas Infrastructure Alliance Private were selected after Rwanda and the African Development Bank (AfDB) signed a $38.4 million seven-year SEAP1 contract in 2013.
This agreement was intended to feed into the then goal of 70% of Rwandan households for rural electrification by 2017.
The funding that included a $23.4 million loan and a $17.9 million grant was intended to be used to roll electricity across the nation.
Angelique International Ltd was paid $11.2 million for the districts of Nyabihu, Rulindo, Gicumbi, Ngorerero, while the districts of Rusizi, Karongi and Nyamaseke received $9.9 million awarded to Overseas Infrastructure Alliance Ltd.
Committee Chair Fidel Rwigamba said that, unlike the fields allocated to the Overseas Infrastructure Alliance, the cash was put to excellent use in fields where Angelique International was allocated.
“Overseas Infrastructure Alliance never abided by the project timeline. In some areas where this contractor was assigned we found electricity poles lying idle for years in bushes and equipment rusting,” said Rwigamba said.
Overseas Infrastructure Alliance was fined $1.2million for these failures because it was unable to satisfy the timely contract demands.
After finding them, however, their agreement was renewed with expectations of learning from the faults and delivering to expectations.
However, while citizens continued to complain that they could see equipment lying idle while they required electricity to develop their neighborhoods, they still held the low pace.
“In consultation with the infrastructure ministry, we finally decided to withdraw the contract and handover the remaining work to Rwanda Energy Group (REG) and at least $1million was saved on the project’s budget which will be used to finish the job,” Rwigamba said.
MPs said a lot previously the firm should have been suspended.
“How will this Indian company be held accountable?” MP Christine Muhongayire asked.
MP Marie Claire Uwumuremyi asked why 67 percent had been paid to the Overseas Infrastructure Alliance, which failed and requested whether the remaining 33 percent balance could be completed.
The commission said another skilled agency will follow up on the problem of value for taxpayers ‘ cash and loss caused by the Indian business.
“We are still doing an inventory to see loss caused by Oversees infrastructure alliance and how much balance can be given to them and how REG will complete the job, but visibly we see that a good job was done elsewhere,” said MP Rwigamba.
The commission also showed in the study that there were places where, after being expropriated, 67 inhabitants were not compensated.
This was due, as documented in the study, to the inability of local officials to get engaged in the execution process due to absence of understanding on the entire project.
According to the reasoning above, MPs wondered why SEAP1 failed in three districts, yet it did well in other districts.
Up to now, $24.4 million (73 percent) has been spent on SEAP 1 which will end in 2020, but MPs have been wondering if its execution was good enough to force the government to seek financing for SEAP2- which has already been approved in Parliament.
The commission said the donor (AfDB) was impressed with accountability and processes in enforcing the loan agreement and ready to finance again, but also made suggestions for resolving the issues about citizens ‘ compensation by September 2019.
