Mozambique: former water officials arrested for corruption

Mozambique’s anti-corruption agency GCCC has arrested the former director and financial administrator of the central regional office of the government’s Water Supply Investments and Assets Fund (FIPAG).

José Duarte and Henriques Leonardo were expelled from FIPAG in mid-2011, but it apparently took over a year to compile the case against them.

Duarte is accused of creating a private water supply company, Recta, which competed with FIPAG to supply water to ships in Beira port.

The activities of Duarte and Leonardo are said to have caused FIPAG losses of 37 million meticais [US$ 1.23 million].

The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is supporting Cowater Consultores Lda. to develop an appropriate anti-corruption strategy and plan with the Direcção Nacional de Águas (DNA) in Mozambique [1].

In April 2012, the government decreed that FIPAG would outsource water distribution to the private sector and restrict its activities financing and managing water assets [2].

[1] Developing a water anti-corruption strategy in Mozambique, IRC, 29 Nov 2011

[2] Mozambique: government relaunches water supply privatisation, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique / allAfrica.com, 04 Apr 2012

Related websites:

• FIPAG – Fundo de Investimento e Património de Abastecimento de Água
• Water Integrity Network
• IRC – Transparency and Accountability

Source:

• Mozambique: Former Water Supply Officials Arrested, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique/allAfrica.com, 02 Nov 2012
• Diário de Moçambique, Gabinete de Combate à Corrupção prende ex-directores regional e financeiro do FIPAG, @Verdade, 01 Nov 2012

Ghana: donors urged to help prevent corruption in the water sector

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has appealed to donor agencies to introduce anti-corruption policies and tools in all their water sector activities. This was one of the recommendations of Ghana’s National Water Supply Integrity Study [1] undertaken by GII as part of the Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Africa (TISDA) programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The GII study mentions not only petty corrupt practices like illegal connections and illegal payments to meter readers, but also instances where a single contractor bought and priced all bidding documents.

South Africa: Conflict over contract threatens rural water supply

The people of Joe Morolong, a rural area in South Africa, are waiting to be connected to a new water supply system, while the municipality and two construction companies continue to fight over a contract. Both companies claim to have won the contract to construct boreholes and a water supply system which would provide 20.000 people with piped water. Allegations of collusion between the companies and different government officials are made back and forth, but the dispute has not yet been resolved. As the case has lingered on for eight months, the key donors envisage withdrawing their money from the project.

Read more: Mail and Guardian Online, 8 July 2011

 

South Africa: call to cancel US$ 82 million sanitation contract

A parliamentary committee wants to cancel a 550 million Rand (US$ 81.7 million) rural sanitation contract with an NGO for its failure to deliver services on time. The ministers of Public Works and of Human Settlements want to give the NGO, Independent Development Trust, a second chance.

The parliament’s human settlements portfolio committee wants to cancel the second and third phases of the Trust’s contract to build pit and flushing toilets in 25 rural municipalities. The Independent Development Trust was to have completed the first phase of its three-year contract, worth 100 million Rand (US$ 14.8 million) in April 2011, but it only spent 46 million Rand ((US$ 6.8 million) on 8368 pit toilets – a third of which were delivered after the deadline.

The committee plans to table a report in parliament calling for Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde to cancel the rest of the contract. Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale pleaded with the committee to give the development trust more time and not to hand the contract over to the private sector.

However, MPs told Sexwale that they had been trying for 10 months to get the trust to deliver and tender documents indicated that it had no experience in sanitation and should not have been given the contract..

Source: Anna Majavu, Times Live, 27 Jun 2011

Ghanaian Government Ends Contract with Water Supply Company

The contested public-private contract with the water supply company, Aqua Vitens Rand Limited in Ghana, has not been extended. The company, which took over the operation of Ghana’s urban water supply in 2006, was supposed to improve the accountability of water delivery over the last five years.

Water consumers and civil society organisations harshly criticized Aqua Vitens for failing to meet the clear targets set at the beginning of the contract. Based on the company’s poor performance the government decided no to renew the five year contract, which automatically expired in May this year.

The communications director of Aqua Vitens questioned the reason put forward by the Ghanaian Minister of Water Resources. He claims that Aqua Vitens remains competent to improve Ghana’s urban water supply.

Sources: Kapitel 97; AllAfrica.com

Nigeria: UNICEF Chooses Anambra for Water Project

UNICEF has again chosen Anambra State as one of the few states to benefit from the rural water programmes of the Water Supply and Sanitation Reform Programme (WSSSRP) and Support to Reforming Institutions (SRIP). Briefing newsmen at a workshop organised by UNICEF, the state UNICEF consultant, Amina Ominyi, said Anambra was chosen because of its past performances. She said the programme covered only one out of the five local governments earlier selected.

Source: Daily Independent / allAfrica.com, 8 March 2011

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South Africa: Edna Molewa replaces Buyelwa Sonjica as Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, top officials suspended

Edna Molewa

Edna Molewa has replaced Buyelwa Sonjica as Water and Environmental Affairs Minister in President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle, which was announced on 31 October 2010.

One of Molewa’s biggest challenges, according to the Star newspaper “will be setting right the disarray in the Department of Water Affairs”, which had delivered its financial statements two months late this year and has been plagued by allegations of corruption.

On Ms Molewa’s first day as Minister, the Department of Water Affairs put its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr. Onesmus Ayaya and the Deputy Director General for Corporate Services who was also the Acting Director General, Ms. Nobubele Ngele on “precautionary suspension pending an investigation into irregular procurement practices”.

Read more in WASH Names in the News, 02 Nov 2010

Admission of corruption in Kenyan Water Ministry by Ngilu

Minister Charity Ngilu has admitted that corruption is widespread in the Kenyan Water Ministry. The minister explains that a range of factors form the combined cause of the prevalence of corrupt behaviour. These factors include violent water cartels, illegal water tapping, mismanagement and a weak Water Act 2002. As a consequence she has put a notice on all of the officers in the Water Ministry and plans to launch four water boards, hoping to curb the problem.

More information can be found here:

• Alphonce Shiundu, Ngilu puts Ministry officials on notice over graft, Daily Nation, 28 Sep 2010
• David Ochami, Peter Opiyo and Alex Ndegwa, Ngilu admits corruption rife in water sector, The Standard, 28 Sep 2010

Kenya: cell phones, Google Apps help bring basic sanitation and more transparency

Nuru International, a US-based nonprofit focused on pioneering holistic, sustainable solutions to poverty, is using some Google platforms and Nokia phones to increase sanitation in Kuria, Kenya.

The organization has registered a Kenyan web domain name and created an account with Google Apps, providing access to each of the 60 Kenyan staff members. GPRS-enabled handsets have been purchased for about $40 apiece, and using these phones they can email one another very inexpensively.

“We’re using the best technology available to reach our farmers. Nokia made a great phone. Safaricom built a strong GPRS network. Opera coded a superb browser. And Google made a truly remarkable suite of applications. They’re all unintentionally working together with Nuru. According to our motto, we’re bringing the best of the best to serve the poorest of the poor.” Said David Carreon, Nuru Healthcare Project Manager.

“We use the phones during data collection for sanitation and hygiene and also the Community Healthcare Workers instead of writing use the phone to submit data. “ Said Nelly Andega, Nuru Health Care Manager.

The teams use the cameras on the phone to photograph and video the sites they’re supervising and upload the images, keeping a permanent and searchable record of all their supervision activities. And, the use of Google Sheet is keeping their organization paper free, further reducing the cost of operations from supplies to office space.

Read more about the technologies used in David Carreon’s blog post “Farmers Fighting Poverty with Nokia Google Opera and Safaricom“, 20 May 2010

Another unexpected advantage of the use of cell phones is increased transparency. Google forms on the phone are now used to register attendance at important trainings. “Even the Water and Sanitation Representatives [volunteer community educators] have come earlier”, says Eliza, a Water and Sanitation Field Manager. “They know that the phone records the time that I submit whether they are on time, late or absent. So, they don’t even ask me to change their records anymore. With the phones, there is no cheating.”

Web site: Nuru International – Water & Sanitation

Source: Jaymi Heimbuch, Planet Green, 21 May 2010 ; Nicole Scott, Nuru Water and Sanitation blog, 01 Jun 2010

Water-intensive Industries are Weakly Managed and Poor at Reporting

According to a new benchmarking study undertaken by CERES, UBS and Bloomberg, the majority of leading companies working in key water-intensive industries and sectors (particularly mining and beverage) are weakly managed and poor at reporting  on water-risks and performance. This is of particular concern for areas under water-stress. The study also analyses the extent of stakeholder engagement facilitated by the companies and their engagement in local watershed management. For more information and to download the report, visit: http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=1200