Officials block commissioning of Shs2b Masindi roads over shoddy work

Officials in Masindi District have appealed to the local council to block the commissioning of the 9.5km Kyatiri-Kitanyata road in Kiruli Sub County over shoddy work.

This particular had been allocated Shs400,493,217 million for improvement, but according to the authorities, what the contractor has presented to them is of lower quality than expected.

The funds are part of the Shs2 billion, the Ministry of Finance sent to the district for the road network improvement in the first quarter of this financial year.

The other roads to be improved included: Biraizi-Labongo road (7.6km) costing Shs298,000,000, and the Bwinamira-Kimanya road (9.3km) costing Shs670,140,200.

However, Ms Tinka Noreen, the chairperson of the works and production committee at Masindi District, says it was during her committee’s monitoring session that they noted that the marram at Kyatiri-Kitanyata road was not sufficient, causing waterlogging.

“Even at Kibibira-Kyababyaara, the old culverts were reinstalled and yet they are broken. In addition, they are too small to enable smooth water flow, which results in flooding. These roads should not be commissioned until the defects are addressed,” she noted. She said the Biraizi-Labongo road lacks head walls on Biraizi swamp which is causing siltation.

Mr Joseph Sunday, the Masindi District Engineer, said: “The road required 196 culverts but was only given 146 culverts which he was supposed to install. So we would only remove broken culverts and replace them with the new ones.”

Mr Sunday accused the works committee of monitoring the road without a technical person to explain to them what they thought were irregularities.

The roads were due for commissioning in early December 2022.