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MPs keen to pull the plug on Lubowa hospital deal
MPs on Parliament’s Committee on Finance, and Finance ministry officials inspect construction works at the stalled Lubowa hospital project on Entebbe Road on Thursday. PHOTO / DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- The project currently has no contractor, and an on-site inspection by MPs on Thursday revealed more troubling details.
- Mr George Otim, the acting commissioner for infrastructure in the Ministry of Health, puts the progress rate of the project at 23 percent.
The vast bulk of lawmakers on the parliamentary Committee on Finance have strongly proposed that the government terminates the deal entered into with an Italian investor to construct an international specialised hospital in Lubowa.
Despite Ms Enrica Pinetti being cleared in 2019 to start the project to, among others, reduce medical tourism, progress has stalled to a crawl.
The project currently has no contractor, and an on-site inspection by MPs on Thursday revealed more troubling details.
Mr George Otim, the acting commissioner for infrastructure in the Ministry of Health, puts the progress rate of the project at 23 percent.
During their visit to the site, the MPs were dismayed to learn that nearly three years later, only a foundation for the main building has been laid.
Consequently, the lawmakers want Ms Pinetti to submit, among others, copies of the agreement signed between her and the government, as well as the bill of quantities for the said project.
“We want to look at the violations which have happened so far because they should have finished this project in two years, having started in 2019. They have now pushed it up to 2024,” Mr Paul Omara (Otuke County) said, adding: “So we are looking for violations to be able to cancel the contract and find a better way of completing that project.”
The stalled works of Lubowa International Specialised Hospital located on the Kampala-Entebbe Road. PHOTOS/DAVID LUBOWA
Finance minister Matia Kasaija and his deputies Amos Lugoloobi (Planning and Development) and Henry Musasizi (General Duties) were also part of the on-site inspection that ascertained only peripheral works—like construction of staff hostels and training school—have been done.
The snail pace at which the project is progressing compelled Mr Omara to term Ms Pinetti’s company a “briefcase company.”
“Even more perplexing,” he added, “is that the said company appears not to have any financial backing [or] any [track record] in the construction of a hospital of that nature.”
He added: “They are basically hiring out some of the components of the contract to different parties.”
Mr Karim Masaba (Industrial Division, Mbale City) opined that since the project appears to be used to “siphon” taxpayers’ money, “a detailed investigation” to establish “what is going on here” is of the essence.
The stalled progress of the International Specialised Hospital in Lubowa started blipping on the radar following the demise of Jacob Oulanyah. The immediate past Speaker of Parliament was medevacked to the US (Seattle) for specialised treatment of late-stage cancer.
Background
The trip to Seattle is reported to have cost the taxpayer Shs1.5b, contributing to the medical tourism bill that the hospital in Lubowa was meant to cure.
When Shs319b was earmarked for the controversial Lubowa hospital in the Financial Year 2022/2023 budget, matters came to a head.
