Mayor Empowers Bureau to Administer All Construction

The City Construction Bureau has taken over the responsibility of managing all construction projects in the capital with the primary aim of improving project administration.

Deputy Mayor Takele Uma ordered public offices in the city on January 14, 2019, to transfer all ongoing projects to the Addis Abeba Construction Bureau.

The new mandate enables the Bureau to prepare bidding documents, announce tenders, select contractors and consultants, clear land and fulfill infrastructure for any project that takes place within the city. Previously, the projects used to be managed by different offices under the City Administration using the supervision, consultancy and regulatory manpower of the Bureau.

The Deputy Mayor gave the direction following performance auditing that was conducted by the city’s auditor general and finance bureaus on pending projects taking place in the city.

The half-year project performance report has shown that out of the 718 ongoing projects in the reported period, only 384 were completed within the scheduled time frame, while 200 projects are delayed due to design revisions, land clearing, project administration issues and payment delays.

Beyond the delay, the audit also found that poor project quality was caused by hiring non-professionals.

For these delayed projects, the City Administration has allocated over two billion Birr this fiscal year, according to Yonas Ayalew, head of the city’s Construction Bureau.

More than 80pc of the construction projects in Ethiopia run over budget and experience delays, according to an article published by the International Research Journal of Engineering & Technology in March 2017, “A Critical Review of the Causes of Cost Overruns in Construction Industries in Developing Countries”.

Lack of proper cost planning and monitoring during pre-and post-construction stages, improvements to standard drawings during the construction stage and design changes, inaccurate quantity take-off, fluctuations in the cost of building materials and lack of planning and coordination are the significant causes blamed by the journal for project delays.

“The construction sector consumes 75pc to 80pc of the city’s aggregate budget,” said Takele, two weeks ago at a meeting that was held at Elilly Hotel, off Joseph Tito Street, with contractors and consultants operating in the city. “And it is highly exposed to corruption.”

The new change will enable public offices to focus on their regular activities,” said Afework Nigusse, deputy head of the Construction Bureau.

Tessema Negash (Com.), Deputy CEO of the Addis Ababa City Fire, Emergency Prevention &  Rescue Agency, agrees with Afework’s view.