The Executive Director (ED) of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has announced the restoration of Dott Services’ contract having cancelled it two years ago.
Allen Kagina, addressing the media on Wednesday said after talks with the Attorney General, the authority is now in negotiations with Dott Services Limited.
She said the local firm has been reinstated along with another Chinese company- China Rail.
“We are in discussions with Dott Services to come back. Serve were guided by the Attorney General to enter into consent to have them reinstated,” Kagina said Wednesday at a news conference.
Adding that: “UNRA is taking steps to ensure that the projects are implemented strictly in accordance with the terms and conditions of their contracts in the quickest time possible.”
The development comes high on heels of numerous letters written by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni expressing his distress as to why Kagina was frustrating local companies.
Museveni had reminded Kagina that the indigenous firms like Dott Services needed rather support as they help the country overcome the unemployment hazard.
In his January letter Museveni notified Kagina that he had learnt Dott Service is a big company worth USD 100 million and it’s not only in road construction but electricity generation too.
“It is therefore, a company that can broaden their investment efforts in Uganda. In the wider interests of the country, therefore, you should give this company one more chance on the Mbale-Tirinyi road,” the President ordered UNRA boss.
“Some flexibility does not, in any way, undermine our anti-corruption efforts,” he suggested.
In 2015 UNRA terminated the contract awarded to Dott Services to rehabilitate 120km Tirinyi- Mbale- Nakalama road citing shoddy work with only two months left to completion.
“The reinstatement of Dott Services and China Rail
should not undermine our efforts to monitor performance. We have signed contracts, with terms and we shall continue to ensure every project follows those terms,” Kagina concluded.
