Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has revealed that the April 2022 fire that burnt a section of the offices at the Ministry of Agriculture along Buganda road in Wandegeya, Kampala destroyed equipment and infrastructure worth Shs2.4 billion.
In his 2021/2022 financial year report submitted to Parliament, the Auditor General John Muwanga, said items that were lost in the said fire included books that were housed within the stores of the ministry.
“Out of the 62 items kept in the stores and burnt; book values could only be ascertained for 34 items with a total estimate of Shs2.366 billion. The value for the rest of the items could not be established due to incomplete and insufficient information,” Mr Muwanga’s report reads in part.
In the aftermath of the fire, police arrested two cleaners to help with investigations.
The report being looked into by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC)- Central reveals that the Police found that the fire had been triggered by the careless rubbish burning at the ministry at the time.
Whereas the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr David Kasura agrees with the findings of the report, he told the legislators on the PAC that his office has since undertaken efforts to lessen possibilities and or avoid a repeat of the same.
“We have re-organised these stores. We went through the process that is required. We had the Police investigation and the real cause of the fire was one young man, a guard. There was carelessness, I think he was burning some leaves and he burnt the place. We are actually lucky he didn’t burn our offices,” Mr Kasura said.
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