KAMPALA: They have asked about the Army’s engineering brigade’s ability to finish the renovation of the passenger terminal building at Entebbe International Airport.
The modification of the passenger terminal building is one of the projects that the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority-UCAA is undertaking under the National Civil Aviation Master Plan, which was launched in 2015.
It involves re-modelling the existing departure areas, conversion of the existing trunk road into a departure check-in hall, construction of a 4-storey new concession block, a new 4-lane elevated trunk road, and a connection bridge to access the departures on the first floor of the existing terminal building, external drainage, and landscaping. The project will be implemented in two phases.
In 2016, UCAA contracted M/s Seyani Brothers to implement the first phase. Four levels, exterior finishes and a raised access road were built in phase one. The departures floor was finished in phase two, and the first part of this phase was done.
The work in the first phase was completed in December 2020. The defect liability period ended last December. Passengers and stakeholders such as airlines and handlers are currently using the departures area.
A group of legislators went to see the progress at Entebbe airport on Friday, and they were concerned about whether the Uganda People’s Defence Forces-UPDF engineering brigade could do it. They were led by Soroti East MP Moses Okia Attan, as well as Buyamba County MP Ssemwanga Gyaviira.
Henry Maurice Kibalya, Bugabula County MP, says the army can get contracts for schools, roads, and hospitals, but not at an international airport, which has several international requirements to fulfill.
However, Fred Bamwesigye, the Director General of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority-UCAA, assured MPs that the construction work supervising consultant is working closely with the army to ensure the works are up to standard. Messrs. Ssentoogo and Partners, Architects and Planning Consultants, were hired to assist with construction work implementation.
The UPDF engineering brigade started working on the passenger terminal building extension project on April 9 and is expected to complete it within a year. On the arrivals level, there are still a lot of things that need to be done inside and outside. Canopies will be put up to protect passengers from rain and sunlight as they leave or arrive at the airport.
Bamwesigye explained that the army was contracted to do the second phase of the project as a condition for getting sholings of 15 billion from the government. This is because the project was being financed by locally generated funds, which, however, were affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. As a result, the project has stalled for close to two years due to a lack of funding.
Nonetheless, he says that last October, the ministry of finance gave UCAA money to help finish the renovation of the passenger terminal building. It gave it $15 billion to do so.
But, Bamwesigye says, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja said the work would be completed by the UPDF engineering brigade.
The sholings of 15 billion were part of the sholings of 76 billion the government planned to spend to set up and operate a centre for mandatory COVID-19 testing for all incoming passengers at Entebbe Airport.
The amount was arrived at during meetings held by the Inter-ministerial committee for COVID-19. The committee is chaired by Premier Nabbanja.
The rest of the money was to be used to set up and equip a lab, collect samples, buy consumables like reagents, and pay people.
Officials from the army, the ministry of health, UCAA, work, finance, foreign affairs, and immigration were all part of the exercise.
It was agreed that the UPDF engineering brigade would set up prefabricated structures on the air side for sample collection and also shelters and canopies on the walkways from the exit of the arrivals section to the entrance of the extended passenger terminal building to shield them from rain and sunshine. The army completed the work in October and mandatory testing commenced at the end of the same month. Mandatory testing was stopped in February this year.
However, this is not the first time the project has come under scrutiny. When parliament’s committee on commissions, state-owned firms and other government agencies (COSASE) looked at the contract that was awarded in phase one, they found flaws.
It noted that the government awarded Seyani Brothers the contract without due diligence and that the project was given a new design that included building one structure instead of two buildings to separate domestic and international traffic. The new design, or re-scoped project, would increase the cost by 6.4 billion shillings, from 42.69 billion shillings.
The committee said that UCAA should talk to all of its stakeholders and do a thorough needs assessment at the planning and tendering stages of future projects to avoid having to change them later on.