President Adama Barrow at UTG Faraba Campus.
By Buba Gagigo
President Adama Barrow has voiced his dissatisfaction following a site inspection of the ongoing construction at Lot 2 of the University of The Gambia’s Faraba Banta Campus, admitting his mood shifted as he approached the site.
“I definitely need to be very honest. When I was in my office, there was something in my head. There was a picture, definitely that picture was not on the ground, because of the target time that we have for this project. The project is way behind schedule because we targeted this project to be part of our independent celebration. It is far behind schedule, but we have discussed it with the contractor and the consultant. They will give us a realistic revised work plan, and we will receive this on Friday. We will discuss with them to see what will be the realistic time that we can complete this project,” the president said.
Despite the setbacks at Lot 2, President Barrow expressed contentment with the progress of the other two faculties, noting that they are nearing 90% completion of the structural work.
“It is the Chancery that is delayed now. There are some technical issues that delayed it, with our donors also, but we are 100%. So we are going to deliver the project before the end of the year. That is our target, and we are so of that,” the president said.
The contractor briefed the president on several challenges that contributed to the delay. The original target completion date had been set for the end of July, but progress was hindered by the rainy season, which affected work at the foundation level. Due to the depth of the foundations—five meters down—excavation proceeded slowly in small layers to ensure structural integrity. The saturated soil during the rainy season further delayed progress.
“We could not progress. There were some problems at the foundation level. It is very deep. It’s five meters down and for quality purposes, we have to go by small layers to complete the excavation up to the solid soil. Then we erected what we call footings. Then from there, we started backfilling level by level. During the rainy season, when the soil is saturated with water, we cannot do much work, and that’s what makes the delay,” he said.
The contractor also elaborated on the financing structure for Lot 2, noting that lessons learned from Lot 1, which involved five co-financiers, had influenced their decision to pursue parallel financing for the current phase. The Faculty of Law and School of Agriculture are financed by the Islamic Development Bank, while the Chancery building is funded by BADEA.
“So what we can see here is almost the production for four months only. This is the first problem. The second problem is that this building is financed by BADEA. For this Lot, we learned lessons from this campus project. Lot 1 was financed by five co-financiers and it was a combined financing. Coordination was very difficult. So whenever we procure whatever single item, we need to take no objection from the five donors,” he said.
He however said for this Lot 2 the lesson that they learned is that they had to avoid the same process.
“So we opted for what we call parallel financing. Lot 2 includes three buildings with some external works. For lot two, we have the Faculty of Law, we have the school of agriculture, and we have the Chancery building to avoid these procurement issues, we opted for what we call parallel financing,” he explained.
However, the contractor pointed out that the loan disbursements were delayed, particularly the loan from BADEA, which was slower to become effective compared to the IDB loan, causing further delays.
“But again, what happens when we are executing the project? The loan provided by BADEA was very late to declare effective. The loan by IDB was declared effective nine months before, which is almost one year before, and that makes the difference,” he said.
President Barrow, responding to the contractor’s lengthy explanation, stated, “I think the explanation is too much, these are big contractors, and we should always try to avoid that. We are targeting to open this by this year as part of our 60 years Anniversary, but what are we seeing? No! I am not happy. When I was approaching the place, it changed my mood.”
The president was accompanied by the Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology during the site visit. This inspection is part of President Barrow’s ongoing efforts to closely monitor project progress, understand the challenges faced, and identify solutions to ensure the timely completion of the projects.