Auditor General finds aid stock below minimum thresholds
The National Disaster Risk Management Commission has little choice but to shell out an additional 9.1 billion Birr to finalize the construction of three warehouses intended to house the country’s aid reserves, a new report from the Office of the Federal Auditor General reveals.
The Commission has doled out new contracts for the construction of warehouses in Kebri Dehar (Somali region), Finoteselam (Amhara region), and Hosaena (administrative center of the Central Ethiopia Regional State) after the work consumed an initial budget of 3.8 billion Birr for feasibility studies and design.
The warehouses, initially slated for completion last year, have not progressed as well as officials had hoped, forcing the Commission to enter into new, significantly more expensive contracts to get the job done.
Ovid Construction PLC has taken over the Finoteselam warehouse project at a cost of 6.5 billion Birr, more than six times the initial budget of one billion Birr. The Kebri Dehar project has been awarded to 3M Engineering PLC for 342 million Birr, double the initial cost.
Ovid and Chinese firm Jiangxi Water and Hydropower Construction PLC have been hired to work jointly on the Hosaena warehouse, with the contract value ballooning to 4.3 billion Birr from one billion.
The audit report revealed the Commission’s stock of aid materials intended for internally displaced persons (IDPs) is running dangerously low and in many cases do not meet minimum threshold levels. Equipment and machinery needed to mount response efforts are also in scant supply or not available at all, according to the Auditor General.
The Commission has no helicopters, excavators, dozers, boats, or other heavy machinery it would need to live up to its mandate, according to the report.
Auditors noted they had a difficult time getting hold of Commission officials and officials in charge of disaster response in regional administrations.
The report also notes the Commission failed to conduct a study and establish a special fund for disaster response efforts.
