FPAC assesses costing components of La Gogue dam project |08 April 2022

Members of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) in the National Assembly yesterday visited the ongoing La Gogue dam project to assess its costing and financing components.

The committee’s chairperson, Sebastien Pillay, later said that the committee will only be able to declare whether the project is value for money when it is completed and is functioning to the required extra capacity of 600,000 cubic metres of water.

It was the chief executive of the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) Joel Valmont who guided the FPAC delegation on a tour of the site. Also present on the visit were the Auditor General, Gamini Herath and representatives from both PUC and Synohydro Corporation Limited, a Chinese company based in Mauritius which is undertaking the project.

“The amount of civil works that has to be done and the amount of input into the project gives you an indication that, yes, it’s a costly project and whether it’s value for money, we will be able to determine this when the dam is completed and when we have the extra 600,000 cubic metres of water in the dam and it is functioning properly. That’s when we can really say for sure that it’s been value for money.

“But as it stands now, they have a completion date which they are going to stick by and it’s very good on the part of PUC, so let’s hope and cross our fingers that everything goes right, there are no more delays or anything that can affect the rate at which the project is progressing,” Hon Pillay said.

Besides assessing the costing and financing of the project, the FPAC wanted to see what part of the project has been delivered so far and whether there will be cost overrun, among other costing and financing related issues in relation to the budget allocation.

It’s the first visit to La Gogue dam by the committee since a pro-active approach undertaken this year to visit projects filed in the report of the auditor general.  

“I am very impressed with the fact that as a people, we decided to embark on this project about five to six years ago. I think it’s quite impressive what we have accomplished as a nation today and this is testimony that we as Seychellois are able to do a lot of things and we can manage such difficult projects albeit there have been difficulties along the way,” Hon. Pillay added.

The work to raise the level of the dam by 6 metres started in 2018 and was expected to finish by the end of 2019, but was later targeted to finish by June 2021 as a result of an exceptional amount of rainfall experienced during the period 2018-2019 and setback caused by representatives of the Pick-Up Plant and Truck Hire Association (PPTHAA) and unexpected geological conditions encountered related to seepages and grouting of the south saddle.

There was an additional cost of R100 million to address seepages that have been observed between the old and new spillway on the right abutment of the dam which had needed additional piling including the installation of drains, gabions and rip raps to stabilise the slope of the south saddle where a house has also encroached on it. The announcement was made by the then chief executive of PUC, Philippe Morin in December 2020 during a visit made by the Committee on Government Assurances (Coga) in the National Assembly, chaired by Hon. Sylvanne Lemiel.

It is to be noted that the contract for the project was awarded in August 2017 to Synohydro for a total amount of R184,600,596.50. The company was awarded another R20 million following five months’ delay in work caused by the PPTHAA, that wanted to be included in the project.

Hon. Pillay said that they have been reassured that PUC is still within the scope of the costing for the project and that rather than asking for additional funds, it has re-aligned some components of its funding to cater for areas where there is a need.

“As everyone understands, if ever there will be additional funds, this would have to be submitted to the National Assembly and when it comes members would be more aware of what is going on with the project,” Hon. Pillay said.

Other members of FPAC present were Hon. Terrence Mondon (vice-chair), Hon. Conrad Gabriel, Hon. Georges Romain and Hon. Richard Labrosse. Hon. Sandy Arissol and Hon. Churchill Gill were not present. The completion deadline for the project has now been set for end of December 2022.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the visit yesterday.

Patrick Joubert

Photos by Louis Toussaint