Abiy and his officials are claiming that awarding the electromechanical work of GERD to METEC was a grave error of the then government of Ethiopia(that includes Haile Mariam Desalgne). However, this is an intended misinformation to paint a wrong image that PM Abiy and his team saved the project by terminating the contract with METEC for poor performance and awarding it to qualified foreign companies. However, according the information I have the foreign campanile's that replaced METEC were already working as sub- contractors under METEC.
The GERD project has unique risks related to the objection and possible of sabotage by Egypt. One major risk that was considered was the possibility that Egypt directly or indirectly influences the foreign contractors and paralyzes the project. As a mitigation to this major risk the then PM Meles government decided to give the civil construction of the GERD to Salini ( an Italian company which has been a long time reliable and dependable customer of the Ethiopian government that had already constructed a number hydro electric dams for the Ethiopian government ) with out bidding and the electro mechanical part of the project was given to METEC and foreign contractors that would work under METEC. METEC was awarded the project to minimize the risk related to sabotage from Egypt and to build capabilities that could be used for other similar projects in the future. I strongly believe that it was error to terminate the contract with METEC as it could have been possible for METEC to rectify any manufacturing defects and delays it may had through the guidance of the foreign project consultant that was monitoring the project on behalf of the Ethiopian government. By now we could have an inhouse company ( METEC) ready to handle other similar future projects and huge cost reduction since METEC uses largely local expertise and skilled labour.