Contractor of Pawor Seed SS on spot over shoddy work

By John Dibaba

Two construction companies contracted to carry out civil works at Pawor Seed Secondary school in Pawor Sub County Madi-Okollo district is on spot for alleged shoddy work.

The district received 1.4 billion shillings from the ministry of education and sports to accomplish the task, with the money distributed equally between Osdito Investment Limited and Dolphins Construction Company for the first phase and second phases of civil works at the school respectively.

However the duo has been accused of shoddy work and they have since abandoned the site without trace before handing over the project. The district council led by the district chairperson and the council speaker have agreed to seek for council approval to reject the World Bank project on grounds of poor quality construction.  The district chairperson Ismail Drabe says they do not consider Pawor Sub County having a seed secondary school.

”Structurally, there is nothing to be improved in those buildings. We just need the ministry of education to send their engineers to come and ascertain if indeed there was no shoddy work on pawor seed secondary school. Our stand as a district is to reject that seed school”, he said.

The concerns arose after a crack emerged on one of the blocks even before commissioning of the school project.

The contractors have also been accused of using substandard construction materials so as to squeeze part of the money for themselves, in total disregard to project documents.

Councilors have also faulted the mother Arua district for failing to timely supervise the project, giving room for laxity in implementation of the project.

The speaker of Madi-Okollo district council Peter Toriek says they await the next council to have this pronouncement.

”As soon as we sit for the next council, we shall seek for council consent to reject Pawor seed secondary school. We need accountability for this project because it’s possible that they could have diverted part of the money into their own pocket. We are wondering how the greater Arua district failed in the supervision of this multi-billion World Bank funded project. And now our people are missing the value for money”

The local leaders have since threatened to petition the Inspector general of government IGG and State house Anti-corruption unit for further investigations into the work.

However, Dolphins limited, one of the contractors who is being accused for the reported shoddy works denies responsibility.
But the managing director of this company Alfred Kamure Wandera has denied any foul play.

“Madi-Okollo is accusing us wrongly. Not all the buildings were constructed by Dolphins limited. Our works do not have problems and that is what I issued in my report presented to the district.”

Pawor seed secondary school was constructed at a cost of 1.4 billion shillings using a loan from the World Bank through the ministry of Education.

COVER PHOTO: Part of the building that has developed the cracks. Photo by John Dibaba.