By: Melanie Aanyu

The Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the High Court to have the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) pay compensatory damages worth Shs29b to Dott Services, a construction company for delaying it to commence roadworks in Eastern Uganda.

Justice Elizabeth Musoke of the Court of Appeal in her judgment held that the decision of the High Court to compensate Dott Services was rightly arrived at.

Adding that she would also dismiss the allegation that Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) acted fraudulently when it approved the payment made to Unra.

Court documents show that in 2010, Unra entered into two road construction agreements with Dott for the maintenance and construction of Tororo-Mbale road (49km) and Mbale-Soroti road (103km).

The signing of the contracts took place on October 22, 2010, and the agreed commencement date for their execution was November 21, 2010.

The roadworks were expected to be concluded in 18 months.

Unra was required under the relevant contracts to take certain steps to ensure that the roadworks commenced as soon as possible.

However, Unra delayed by 509 days, an omission that prompted Dott Services to seek compensation in court.

Unra, subsequently, contracted PEC to evaluate the compensation claims. After several discussions, PEC finally zeroed down on compensating Dott services Shs12b for the Tororo-Mbale and Shs20b for the Mbale-Soroti road, totaling to Shs33b compensation.