AfDB: Barred Chinese Road Builder for Graft in Uganda

By Abdul Rahman Bangura-

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone– AfDB’s statement divulged that, the Chinese Road Builder “failed to disclose the use of a commission agent while submitting a bid in the context of a tender for the procurement of civil works for upgrading of Rukungiri-Kihihi Ishasha/Kanungu to bituminous standard, a component of the Road Sector Support Project in Uganda,” it noted on Thursday.

The AfDB has stopped Chinese Road Builder China Henan International Corporation Group (CHICO) for engaging in “fraudulent activity” in a project the lender is funding in Uganda.

The ban on the Henan-based constructor will last for a period of one-year effective March 28, a period in which CHICO will not be enabled to partake in any new AfDB-funded projects on the Landmass encircling Kenya where it has an ongoing project.

The Continent’s financier stated, the road project, spanning the Southwestern and Eastern parts of Uganda, is critical to “promoting regional integration and cross-border trade with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.”

CHICO has road projects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, funded by the AfDB, World Bank, and local governments, some of which have same been marred in diverse ways.

In 2022, CHICO ignored the AfDB-funded Kisii-Isebania road project in Southwestern Kenya, after it asked payment of arrears totaling to Sh1.5 billion ($11.3 million).

In 2019, the firm was commissioned in a Kisii court, accused of forging lease consensus for parcels of land, and fraudulently obtaining soil totaled at Sh3.7 million ($27,907) from an agriculturist.

In Tanzania, CHICO is constructing a 57-kilometre road linking Mkiwa-Itigi and Noranga towns in Singida region in the central parts of the country. AfDB has lately been debarring many companies for what it defined as engagement in fraudulent activities in projects it funds.

In 2023, it banned five farms from engaging in the bank’s funded or affiliated projects, amongst them Kenyan company Goldsun Investments, which was found to have engaged in corruption during a tender for the dualling of the 84km Kenol-Sagana-Marua highway in Central Kenya.

Following the year-long ban, the Chinese contractor and any of its affiliates, including its leaders and subsidiaries, “will be ineligible to participate in Bank Group-financed activities.”

“At the expiry of the debarment period, China Henan International Cooperation Group Company Limited will only be eligible to resume participation in African Development Bank Group-financed activities after it implements an integrity compliance program consistent with the Bank’s guidelines,” the lender noted.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports, Africa Correspondent