By Our Reporter
The Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) who last week said today were going to inspect the constriction works of Lubowa hospital have been barred from accessing the site for not providing their details in time.
In a letter inked by the company constructing Lubowa Hospital, it’s clear that no member of parliament will be allowed on site before the company secures for them safety gears like safety shoes, safety jackets, hard hats among others.
For the above matter therefore, the construction company in the same letter further asks MPs to send in their sizes of shoes and the names of MPs who will be going for inspection, for better arrangements.
Meanwhile, the company has also told MPs that even after sending in their particulars, they should be patient until 22nd April when the top bosses behind the construction will have returned from abroad.
MPs’ halted visit was part of investigations into findings by the Auditor General that Shs286bn has so far been paid in excess for the little work that has been done at Lubowa.
This was after George Otim, the Commissioner of Health Infrastructure, at the Ministry of Health last week before PAC committee denied assertions made in the Auditor General’s report that the Ministry of Health had no access to the Lubowa site & that Shs286Bn was paid in excess.
The Auditor General, John Muwanga in his report noted that through a minute dated 11th January 2022, the owner’s engineer had certified only 23% of the completed works valued at US57,477,000 causing a possible overpayment of US76,088,208.28 approximately Shs286Bn.
The report also noted a total of seven promissory notes worth US$133,156,208.23 (Shs476.5Bn) had since been paid by the government to the Lubowa project and the 8th Promissory note worth USD22.7M (Shs88.971Bn) was scheduled for redemption on 31st December 2023 thus bringing the total paid to Shs600.858Bn, if you factor in the latest exchange rate.
Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West) however asked the Committee not to lump all the blame on the mess at Lubowa at only the Ministry of Health, saying Parliament too carries a blame on how the money for Lubowa was approved.
“The day we passed the money for Lubowa, we had refused it three times and I am very eager to get the real report because we were told that people wouldn’t be going out of the country and that we would be treated here in Lubowa and that it would be important for the Ministry of Finance to approve money. Every now and then, they are bringing money for supplementary, we are approving, we aren’t asking what has been done first. I am interested in this project and how we approved this money, it was in the wrong way. People just took money,” said Mafabi.
