Incomplete and inadequate designs on infrastructure projects have led to major time and cost increases. This includes a $13.3m or 254% cost increase on the Gidabo irrigation project in central Ethiopia.

This was the key finding from the CoST Ethiopia Disclosure and Validation event where over 80 participants from government and industry debated the findings from Draft Assurance Reports on 16 road, irrigation and building projects. The reports highlighted an average cost increase of 44% on road projects and 10% on the construction of Jima University.

The poor performance on the roads and water projects was attributed to contracts for construction being awarded when the design was incomplete or flawed. Changes to the design were then required during construction leading to increases in cost and time. The cost increase on the Gidabo irrigation project was due to a delay in deciding to increase the height of the dam and size of the irrigated area.

At the event, the Deputy Minister for Water, Wondimu Tekle, challenged the findings on the Gidabo irrigation project. He stated that “additional information would be provided that would demonstrate that the process for completing the design had been followed.”

A spokesperson for CoST Ethiopia said,“It was important that the procuring entities had the right of reply to the assurance report findings. It was equally important that the discussion was held in the presence of the media as these important issues should be reported to the public. Since then, national newspapers and radio have extensively reported on the cost and time increases and incomplete designs.”

Since the event, the procuring entities have submitted their comments on the assurance reports. Their comments will be included alongside the Assurance Reports when they are published later this month.