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The People’s House of Representatives (HPR) expressed concern about the delay and poor quality of road construction in Ethiopia in a session held on November 24, 2020.
The Chamber expressed concern over several ongoing highway construction projects in various parts of the country, which it said are becoming a source of recurring complaints and public outrage.
The House Standing Committee on Agriculture, Pastoralists and Environmental Protection expressed their concerns when evaluating the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) quarterly performance report for Ethiopia’s current budget year.
Lawmakers have called for consultants and contractors who do not comply with contractual agreements and those who cannot deliver projects on time to be held accountable.
However, the Director General of the Ethiopian Highway Authority, Habtamu Tegegne (Eng) refuted the deputies’ claims, explaining that awarding and managing road construction contracts is becoming more difficult due to numerous constraints, including the foreign exchange shortage, contractor capacity, cement shortage and many others. a great challenge to run things on time.
While explaining the problems his office has to endure to see the completion of a highway project, the director commented: “We negotiate with contractors to build roads and it is like a commodity transaction.”
He complained that procurement provisions force his office to award contracts to the highest bidder, while quality requires better investment.
He commented: “We know that a certain contractor is not capable of building the project, but we are forced to award the project to that contractor anyway as long as they offer the lowest price. Therefore, the Authority has time and again stopped projects and ordered the reconstruction of projects worth hundreds of millions of birr due to poor quality and delays. “
Habtamu stated that the construction sector needs a far-reaching reform that is in line with the ongoing economic reform in the country.
He stated that improving the performance of the sector requires the participation of the HPR to find a better path and make general adjustments; In this regard, he urged legislators to promote the participation of the Ministries of Transportation, Finance and Construction.
According to Habtamu, the Authority is currently executing 250 projects with a total cost of around 500 billion birr.
