Warrap state threatens to take company to court over road construction

July 3, 2011 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s Warrap state on Sunday said it planned to take Liith Company to court over delay in construction of Thiet-Luony Aker road.

In 2008, the ministry of roads and transport of the government of South Sudan awarded Liith; a local company which purportedly specialised in road construction and bridges, a contract worth 15 million Sudanese Pounds ($5.5 million), to construct a road linking Thiet, a former administrative headquarters of Tonj South County, with Luony Aker locality in Gogrial East County.

Officials say terms of the construction gives the contractor six months to complete first phase of the construction after receiving half of the money and the other remaining half of the money would be paid after completion of the whole work.

However, Aniek Tong, minister of physical infrastructure said in an interview with Sudan Tribune from Kuajok, capital of the state, that only a small portion of land less than a kilometer of an area more than 1,000 km has been cleared and the work has stopped indefinitely.

He called on the ministry of roads and transport in the government of South of Sudan to consider reviewing terms of the contract with the contractor, arguing that there are pressing reasons for which the road needs to be constructed with immediacy.

“There are pressing issues for which the construction of this road was prioritised. It was one of our priorities in the state because of the importance of issues attach to it. Some of the reasons for which we prioritised construction of this road were the issue of insecurity in the area and local economic activities between the two counties, while the other reasons were issues connected to accessibility of the road by the local population”, said minister Tong. The minister recently visited Juba to to consult officials from the ministry of roads and transport of the government of South Sudan on the issue.

“I met the minister, the undersecretary and director general over the issue. We had length discussions with each of them during which I told them to consider reviewing terms of the contract, otherwise we will not be able accomplish anything”, he said.

He decried the exclusion of the state government during negotiation of the contract which he said limited the powers of his ministry to evaluate and pressurise the contractor against performance.

“The problem is that the contracts related to road projects in all the ten states of South Sudan are awarded to the contractors by the ministry of road and transports at the level of the [regional not state] government. The states are not consulted”, he said.

James Macok Deng, a member of Warrap State Legislative Assembly, in a separate interview with Sudan Tribune in Juba, on Sunday, said the community would sue the contractor over the failure to construct the road after receiving more than half of the money.

“The communities have actually been asking us (members of parliament) and the state government to consider taking this issue to court,” said Macok.

Macok said the total amount of contract was 15 million Sudanese pounds and 10 million Sudanese pounds has already been paid to the contractor without any meaningful work being done.

Abraham Makur Mabor, Director General in the ministry of roads and transport of the government of South Sudan confirmed that he had correspondended with Warrap state officials over the road and that they have agreed on three options.

“Yes, we have been receiving complaints from state officials particularly from the state minister of finance, minister of physical infrastructure and members of legislative Assemblies at the government of south Sudan level and in the state. They have always complained about performance of the contractor constructing Thiet–Luony Aker road. This is because there are always challenges in the construction involving local companies. They are often associated with construction equipments. Most of them do not [have] the capacity to handle construction,” he said.

(ST)