The Thimphu-Babesa expressway: One mishap after another

11 December, 2007 - The much criticized expressway is overpaid for and an expensive lapse on the part of both the executing agency and contractors, say the Royal Audit Authority (RAA).

The RAA has released its report on the 6.2 kilometre Thimphu-Babesa expressway, which highlights excess payment and the lapses.

The report, which was released on December 6 to the executing agency, Ministry of Works and Human Settlement, indicates that several million of Ngultrums were paid for work that was not carried out.

Although audit officials refused to share their report, Kuensel learnt that huge payments werre made for work not executed by contractors, like the use of bitumen. The ministry was asked to recover more than Nu 10 million from one of the contactors and deposit it to with the audit account immediately.

A source told Kuensel that auditors had found that even the completed works did not meet required technical specifications and standards, which was a clear indication of compromise on cost, quality and workmanship. “It was either out of several supervising engineers’ negligence or possible collusion between them and the contractor,” he said.

Road officials maintained that the allegation of over payment on non execution of works was untrue. They explained that a lot of money had been used up for unseen problems, that emerged at the time of construction, such as unstable land, lack of skills and lack of proper planning.

“We retrieved more than Nu 8 million of the Nu 10 million, which has been deposited into the audit account,” said a road official.

The RAA, who audited the expressway project twice from January to June this year, also reportedly covered in its report the Ngabi Rongchu bridge, which has developed a crack. A source told Kuensel that because of poor planning and design the structures are not resistant to earthquake. One of the bridges in Ngabi Rongchu, meant for vehicles plying from Thimphu beyond Babesa is still not open to traffic.

The director of the roads department, Phuntsho Wangdi, said that two fabricated steel beams were being erected to support the cracks on the bridge which, he added, would be completed within 10 days. “By the new year, the bridge will be ready,” he said.