The contractor of the controversial road described by Buyende residents as ‘shoddy’ has in the morning of Wednesday deployed a group of youth to sweep the dust and gravel on the 2.8km road ahead of an impromptu visit in the area by Works minister Gen Katumba Wamala.
Gen Katumba Wamala has honored the invitation of a group of Buyende residents who have been up in arms over the road project in the Town Council which they say is substandard.
Gen Katumba met stakeholders and inspected the road. Details of the meeting will be filled in later.
A group of people led by Sharif Mangaraine from Buyende district has been up in arms saying the 2.8km road constructed in their town was shoddy and substandard, contrary to the quality promised at the initiation of the project.
Last month, Gen Katumba met the residents and assured them that investigations were underway to ascertain who was in the wrong.
The contract, according to a residents’ petition, was awarded to Ms. Rukonge Enterprises Limited, at a tune of more than ugx2.8 billion. However, the road that has been handed over is below what was expected.
The works minister tasked the road project manager to write him a report on the status of the road, specifically what was expected to be done and what was done.
In the one and half hours meeting, Ministry of works projects manager Eng. Osama told the minister that he received no complaints about the shoddy work on the Buyende road, yet, he also went ahead to allege that the contractor stopped working due to continued threats from the members of the public.
The Buyende town council road has attracted the attention of Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, general duties minister Peter Ogwang and now Gen Katumba himself.
It was unfortunate that Buyende District Council and District Executive as well as members of parliament were silent about the matter.
He promised to bring MPs on board. The minister didn’t stop at that, he also promised to visit the road that is under contestation to make his own assessment of the situation
He also questioned why there is no leadership concerned about this project (district council, DEC, MPs) as they are supposed to do an oversight role.
In October this website reported that residents had petitioned Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to reign in her officials who “ate” their road. They said works are far below road construction standards in Uganda, on top of the fact the contractor was awarded the deal without going through proper procurement procedures.
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