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Bukoto Central legislator Richard Sebamala is among the richest MPs in Uganda and he is into the business of road construction. He is actually an engineer. Sebamala is the big man behind a company called UCA Insaat from Turkey. He is their big man locally in Uganda.
In the year 2022, the government of Uganda received funding from Islamic Development Bank in Riyadh. The funders condition was that the company to do the more than 100km road in Kyenjojo had to be from a country that is a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). Ugandan firms qualified because Uganda is a member of OIC.
Sebamala was one of the Ugandan road constructors who picked interest in the tender but because it was a massive job requiring a lot of money and experience, Sebamala had to look for and get partners from any of the OIC countries and such firms had to be from Egypt and Turkey. These two countries have firms with the highest level of road construction experience among the OIC countries.
Sebamala got a company from Turkey called UCA Insaat as a partner to bid for the job. This teamed up with his own local capabilities and came up with the Joint Venture called Lankaran Yol Tinkinti OJSC besides others like Samco National Construction Company, United Gulf Construction Company WLL and Gocay Insaat Taahhut ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi.
Sebamala was the technical advisor for the JV bid which had to compete with 9 other bidders who responded to the government of Uganda bidding process. These included Dott Services Ltd in JV with Sadeem Al Kuwait General Trading & Contracting Company; Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Co) from Egypt; Maleka Engineering & Contracting Company in JV with Teskon Muhendislik Ltd STI; Gulsan Insaat Sanayi Turizm Nakliyat Ve Ticaret AS; Samco National Construction Company; Batco Badawi Azour Trading & Contracting SAL; United Gulf Construction Company WLL and Gocay Insaat Taahhut ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi in JV with Arastirma Ticaret Ltd Sirketi.
Sebamala’s company offered to do the job at Ugx448,847,755,469.26 (VAT inclusive). But their bid didn’t go beyond the preliminary evaluation stage because their bid security was found to be incurably defective.
There was a requirement for all bidders to have a bank guarantee or bid security which would placate the government of Uganda against non compliance with the contract performance conditions.
In case a bidder gets awarded the contract and doesn’t deliver as expected, the government of Uganda falls back on that bank guarantee to indemnify itself. In his case, Sebamala’s JV company submitted a performance guarantee that was issued by Mugan Bank based in Azerbaijan. The government of Uganda bidding document required that that a bidder must have a partner or corresponding local financial institution or bank based in Uganda.
This was important for enforceability of the obligations that come under the performance guarantee or bid security in case of breach by the successful bidder. The bid security would amount to just Ugx5bn and Sebamala’s failure to involve a local bank or financial institution led to his JV company’s bid being rejected as unsuccessful. This was considered to be a material deviation from the bid requirements and led to Sebamala’s company being unsuccessful.
After that failure to succeed was communicated, a pro-Sebamala complaint was lodged by a whistle blower with the IGG accusing the concerned GoU officials of favoring Arab Contractors from Egypt.
The IGG, citing lack of jurisdiction, passed the complaint on to PPDA which inquired into the complaint fully. In their report, PPDA investigators disregarded the pro-Sebamala complaint on grounds that it lacked merit.
The PPDA report indicated that failure to submit an effective bid security made Sebamala company’s bid submission unresponsive and therefore inadmissible. That failure to have a local bank authenticating their bid security made the Sebamala JV company’s bid submission materially defective and therefore inadmissible.
“The failure to have a correspondent financial institution located in Uganda rendered the bid non-compliant with ITB 19.3 and placed the Entity/GoU at a risk of failure to cash the bid security in the event that the bidder failed to meet any of the conditions indicated in Clause 19 of the Instructions to Bidders. Consequently, the omission was correctly found to be material in nature and the bidder was correctly eliminated during the evaluation of bids in accordance with Clause 19.4 of the Instructions to Bidders. In light of the above, the Authority [PPDA] found no merit in the grounds raised.”
This is how the PPDA auditors, who closely worked with the IGG, put the final nail in Richard Sebamala’s money-making coffin regarding the lucrative Kyenjojo/Kihura-Bwizi-Rwamwanja-Kahunge (68kms) & Mpara-Bwizi road (38kms) deal.
The same deal comprised of another 20kms of town tourism-enhancing roads which had to be paved to a higher standard and quality. Sebamala’s JV Company was so determined to get the Kyenjojo road deal to the extent that they even hired one of the most expensive law firms in Kampala.
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