News
Controversy looms over ADB-funded Rs. 85 billion tunnel project
The tunnel project of a Rs. 85 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to take water from Moragahakanda to the Mahakandarawa tank in the North Central Province has run into questions from the Public Finance Department for bypassing protocols.
The department has written to the Irrigation Ministry, questioning why it is not keeping to recommendations of the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) appointed to review the tunnel project and has instead appointed a ‘Special TEC’ to review it.
US$ 243 million (around Rs. 48,600 million) had been earmarked for a 27-km tunnel, considered the longest in the country under the Upper Elahera Canal Project of the Mahaweli Water Security Investment Programme (MWSIP). The protocol issue has arisen with regard to a ‘variation order’ linked to the tunnel.
Under the overall project, a 98-km network of canals and tunnels are to take water from Moragahakanda to the Mahakandarawa wewa.
The 27-km tunnel, meanwhile, is an important segment under the Upper Elahera Canal work. It will be fed on the south-end by a canal from Moragahakanda to Eruwewa, after which the water will pass through the tunnel, flow into the north-end Eruwewa canal and be taken onward to the Mahakandarawa wewa.
Under the contract awarded to the China State Construction Engineering Corporation
in December 2020, the lowest of three bids, the tunnel was due to be completed in six years in March 2027. The canals on either side of the tunnel were to be completed in April 2025.
Under the first overall schedule, the project was due to be completed in 2027 but suddenly a new schedule has changed the entire detailed plan, the Sunday Times learns, with a new “acceleration procedure” not being clear. There is also a further addition of US$ 35 million (Rs. 7,000 million) to the existing bill of US$ 243 million for this subsequent “variation”.
In answer to a query sent by Irrigation Ministry Secretary Anura Dissanayake on the appointment of a new Special TEC to review the proposal, Public Finance Director-General J.C. Weligamage has said that as per the Government Procurement Guidelines 2006 Works and Goods, the Procurement Committee is vested with the power to make determination/recommendations based on the recommendations of the TEC.
The Public Finance Director-General’s reply dated October 8, 2021 follows a decision by Irrigation Ministry Secretary Dissanayake to discard the recommendations of the legally-appointed TEC and appoint one of his own as a ‘Special TEC’.
This had followed submissions by the TEC to the Standing Cabinet-appointed Procurement Committee (SCAPC) that the final decision by the SCAPC on the ‘acceleration variation’ suggested for the Upper Elahera Canal should be made “paying serious attention particularly on the irregularities and cost uncertainties associated with the proposed variation”.
The TEC had further stated that “timely completion uncertainties associated with the implementation of the other contract lots, which are mandatory to complete, prior to the tunnel completion to ensure the full functionality of the total waterway enabling the early realization of benefits” should also be heeded.
In a letter dated September 20, 2021 to the Chairman of the SCAPC, the TEC states as a “general remark” that it finds it prudent to work on expediting the implementation of other work lots of the 95.8 km waterway to ensure the timely completion of the whole project as scheduled.
The Sunday Times learns that some members of the legally-constituted TEC had not been included in an SCAPC meeting held on Tuesday (October 12).
The TEC had been chaired by Engineer Dr. Kamal Laksiri (from the Ceylon Electricity Board) and included Engineers B.W.M.W. Senevirathne Bandara, K.O.U. Karunanayake and K.R.S. Perera of the MWSIP; Engineers S.R.K. Aruppola and S.A.A. Dharmasiri of the Mahaweli Authority; the Environmental Ministry’s Chief Accountant E.M.U.S. Ekanayake; and the Public Finance Department’s Director Ruzniya Abdeen.