MVR 56m wasted for Fuvahmulah sewerage project, audit finds

A performance audit report of the sewerage project that started in 2016 in Fuvamulah has revealed that MVR 56 million was wasted due to government negligence.

The project was funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. When the project was completed, a large expenditure was incurred to resolve some of the problems caused by the project.

According to the audit report, the total cost of the project in the agreements was MVR 282,671,514, including consultancy and civil contracts. However, it is known that a total of MVR 300,996,269 was spent on consultancy and civil contracts.

According to the audit, a total of MVR 339.5 has been spent on the entire project. Thus, MVR 56,877,241 was spent on the project, more than what was initially agreed upon.

According to the audit report, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave a conditional approval to the design report, which contains all the details related to the system to be installed under the project, as some aspects of the report need to be revised. However, it is not known whether these issues have been corrected.

Furthermore, it is not known whether the project management unit has done the work under the project, the project monitoring by the ministry and the project cost control plan and project quality control and assurance play have not been prepared.

At the same time, the audit report said that some works of the project were inspected and approved by persons not authorised by the environment ministry and some works were not inspected and approved by any person.

The audit found that the outfall pipe was not installed in the area mentioned in the EIA. The pipeline was not laid at the specified depth and it is now a protected area, the report said.

The audit report also noted that the problems were not properly identified and resolved within the defects liability period.

The project was handed over to Fenaka in 2018 after completion of the practical work. However, the company did not participate in the operation of the system as an operator during that period, the audit said.

The issue was noted by the consenters and notified to the ministry, but no action was taken beyond sending an email to rectify the matter.

Several issues were identified during the defects liability period. The contractor was not instructed to resolve any of the issues related to vacuum chambers and manholes. The ministry also declared the project complete without ensuring that the work was completed to the agreed standard and extent.

This resulted in an additional expenditure of MVR 43.2 million to resolve problems in the system.