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UPDF defends role in taking up govt projects
The Minister in-charge of Science, Technology, and Innovation in the Office of the President, Dr Monica Musenero (centre), during a tour of Kiira Motors vehicle assembly plant in Jinja District on Wednesday. PHOTO/PHILLIP WAFULA
What you need to know:
- The army says they execute projects at lower costs, on time and there is no bureaucracy.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces [UPDF] has defended its role in executing government construction programmes and urged Ugandans to expect it to carry out as many projects as possible.
Lt Gen James Mugira, the managing director of National Enterprise Corporation (NEC), the business arm of the UPDF, made the call during a site visit by the Minister in-charge of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Office of the President, Dr Monica Musenero, to the Kiira Motors vehicle assembly plant in Jinja District.
“When the UPDF undertakes government projects, they are executed at lower costs, on time and there is no bureaucracy, kickbacks or whistleblowers to raise queries that will stall the process,” Gen Mugira said on Wednesday.
NEC is building the more than Shs143b facility at the Jinja business and industrial park and also an indoor stadium at Makerere University, among other projects.
President Museveni, in his July 1 letter addressed to the Minister of Education and Sports, Ms Janet Museveni, and the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, directed the Health and Education ministries to use the army construction brigade to undertake government projects.
This was after Mr Museveni noted that many projects are taking too long to be completed due to the lengthy procurement processes and corruption.
“I am very certain we can avoid all these delays in implementing government construction projects by utilising the army construction brigade to undertake the works,” Mr Museveni said.
Ms Musenero lauded the UPDF for being a frontliner of Ministries, Departments and Agencies developments, adding that the government will soon open up a pathogenic plant and they could contractor the UPDF.
“I am an admirer of the military and the discipline that they have. In my work as an anti-epidemic warrior in the countries that I have worked in, I have always asked for my military escorts,” she said.
She added that she would lobby for funding for the plant after she heard that the project that was initially supposed to take 18 months is in its 32nd month.
Prof Sandy Stevens Tickodri, the executive chairperson of Kiira Motors, said the project had been halted by the Covid-19 pandemic and delayed funding.
According to Prof Tickodri, of the more than Shs143b, the project has been financed up to about Shs70b to Shs80b.
“The pace of financing has been in quotas and you cannot fund a project of such a magnitude in quotas, the reason we have so far spent 32 months,” he said.
Ms Musenero noted that the bus project, which officials said is at 85 per cent, is consistent with Vision 2040, which is outlined in the Development Plan and the National Resistance Movement manifesto.
Background
The Kiira Motors project started the Kiira Vehicle Technology Innovation Programme through which the Kiira EV SMACK, the first Electric Hybrid Vehicle, was designed and built in Africa in 2014. The team then designed and built the Kayoola Solar Bus in 2016, the first Electric Solar Bus designed and built in Africa.
The company’s product after completion of the plant in Jinja will include Sedans, pick-ups, crosser-overs, buses and trucks and this will reduce importation of second-hand vehicles.
