Minister calls for inquiry as contractors abandon projects
State Minister for Economic Monitoring Beatrice Akello Akori (right) tours construction works at Ruhija Seed School in Rubanda Town Council on May 9, 2023. PHOTO/ROBERT MUHEREZA
What you need to know:
- Local leaders accuse the government of not involving them in monitoring.
The State Minister for Economic Monitoring, Ms Beatrice Akello Akori, has directed the State House Anti-Corruption unit to investigate several contractors who abandoned government construction projects Kigezi Sub-region amid accusations of shoddy work.
Ms Akori was on Tuesday monitoring government projects in Kigezi, where she also established shoddy work in the construction of Buramba Health Centre III, the staff quarters at Ryakarimira Town Council, the one stop border post at Katuna and the staff quarters at Butanda Secondary School, all in Kabale district.
She also discovered some stalled projects in Rubanda District such as the construction of the Kerere-Rwabumbe-Rugyendabari road (7.2kms) in Hamurwa Sub-county and Murutenga-Nyamasizi-Kerere road (14.4kms) and Bugarama-Ntungamo-Kitojo road (6.6kms).
Both roads are being implemented under the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries with funding from World Bank.
“I hereby direct the Anti-Corruption unit of the State House to investigate these cases because of the corruption tendencies involved. We cannot tolerate these tendencies because there is no value for the government money released to complete projects that benefit Ugandans,” Ms Akori said.
She also directed the Anti-Corruption unit officials to specifically investigate the Rubanda District water officer, Mr David Otika, and the district engineer, Mr Denis Twesigomwe, over alleged failure to supervise civil works at Bushura gravity flow scheme in Hmauhambo Town Council and Mpungu Health Centre III in Mpungu Sub county respectively, hence causing financial loss to the government.
What officials say
When contacted, Mr Otika denied the accusations of causing financial loss to the government, saying he was implementing the lawful district council resolution on the construction of Bushura gravity flow scheme.
Mr Twesigomwe also denied causing financial loss to the government since all the contracts were procured by the central government and the contractors are yet to begin on the civil works because their contract prices were harmonised.
The chairperson of Rubanda District, Mr Stephen Ampeire Kasyaba, revealed that the abandoned road projects cost the government Shs1.36b.
“We are attributing the stalling of these government projects in Rubanda to the system of awarding contracts by the central government to the selected companies thus denying us chance as local government leaders to monitor them because we are not even given bills of quantities to know what should be done,” said Mr Kasyaba. The Kabale Resident District Commissioner, Mr Godfrey Nyakahuma, said government has lost about Shs430m in the projects that stalled in Ryakarimira Town Council.
He asked the minister to work with the internal police so that the former town clerk for Ryakarimira, Mr Alex Ampeire, can be arrested and prosecuted in courts of law for allegedly causing financial loss to the government.
“Mr Ampeire accepted his mistakes and he signed a document committing to refund the money. Little did we know that he was planning to flee the country. Interpol should have him arrested because we have information that he is now living in China,” the RDC said.
