Adura - Gurbe Road Construction in Gambella has been Suspended

December 30, 2008 (NAIROBI, Kenya) — The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has suspended the tender result for the construction of the Adura - Gurbe road in Gambella Regional State after it was won by Satcon Construction, knowledgeable sources disclosed.

Three companies - Satcon, Almayehu Ketema General Contractor and Kajo International - competed for the 90Km road construction project tender the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) floated about four months ago.

ERA's tender committee had selected Satcon Construction and subsequently the Authority's board chaired by Kasu Ilala,  (PhD) minister of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD), approved the result during a meeting it held three weeks ago.

However, a complaint about the tender process reached the Anti-Corruption Commission which ordered ERA from proceeding on the tender any further.

Berhanu Asseffa, head of Public Relations with the Commission declined to give details of the case saying "It is premature to talk about the issue."

The bidding companies lost the tender to Satcon not because of the financial and technical evaluations but due to their track record on previous road construction projects they have been awarded, according to a member of ERA's Contract Award Committee.

Alemayehu Ketema has been accused by ERA of performing poorly on the construction of the Shashemene-Dodola road, a part of the Nazreth-Assela-Dodola and Shashemene-Goba road construction.

ERA paid Alemayehu 149.5 million Birr for the 34.3Km road which the contractor agreed to finalize in about two years since it started the project in August 2006.

"It [the construction] was not finalized on time," the member of the Contract Award Committee said referring to the September 2008 deadline.

Kajo received a 128.9 million Br worth 106.5Km road construction project in December 2004. The project is a link road that connects five regional towns including Beles Multipurpose project, owned by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and carried out by Salini Costratori - an Italian Construction firm - for 5.4 billion Birr and Dur Bete-Shahuray road, located 502Kms north west of  Addis Abeba in West Gojam Zone.

This project, which has been delayed by two years from the first deadline, is yet to be finalized."We officially filed complaint to ERA stating we do not accept the allegation that our performance has been poor," Alemayehu Ketema, major shareholder of Almayehu Ketema General Contractor, told Fortune.

Disappointed by the track record of the two companies in their previous projects, ERA decided to award the project to Satcon which could have enabled the winner to sign the contract agreement with the Authority last week and have its hands on 800 million Br worth of construction, had it not been for the suspension of the project grant process by the Anti-Corruption Commission.