Africa-Press – Uganda. Local Government minister Raphael Magyezi has ordered the interdiction of Mr James Olimocan, the acting Kitgum District road engineer, over shoddy work done on some Project for the Restoration Livelihood in Northern Uganda (PRELNOR) road projects in Kitgum District.
The road in question measures 15km from Lakwanya-Akilok central road in Orom Sub-county, Kitgum District. It was contracted to Nabale Construction Company Ltd under PRELNOR at Shs1.2b.
Mr Magyezi made the order on Wednesday during a visit by the parliamentary committee on Public Service and Local Government to PRELNOR projects in Orom Sub-county in Kitgum District.
Mr Magyezi accused Mr Olimocan, who was the primary supervisor of the project at district level, of certifying the work to the project manager of PRELNOR to approve the payment of 90 per cent of the total contract sum to the contractor, even when the road had glaring defects.
Mr Magyezi said civil servants like Mr Olimocan, who are meant to properly supervise road construction in the district are instead sabotaging development, leading to loss of government funds.
He tasked the Kitgum District chief administrative officer, Mr Martin Jacan Gwokto, to immediately suspend Mr Olimocan and the contractor be called back to the site to work on the defects.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Olimocan were futile as he did not respond to our questions at the scene or answer our repeated phone calls by press time.
Background
Trouble started after Mr Abraham Aturu, the councillor representing Orom Sub-county in Kitgum District, raised the concern to the parliamentary committee chaired by Mr Goeffrey Onzima, who is also a Member of Parliament Aringa North County in Yumbe District, on Wednesday that most PRELNOR projects are on paper and no one in his sub-county is benefitting from it..
This prompted Mr Onzima to propose a visit to the area to see what was really going on. This was seconded by Ms Suzan Amero, the Woman MP for Amuria District.
The team then went to Lakwanya-Akilok central in Orom Sub-county, where they discovered that more than six culverts installed in a different section of the newly constructed road have since been damaged.
