Africa-Press – Uganda. Soroti District officials are on the spot over substandard roadworks.
This follows audit reports sanctioned by the Auditor General, which showed that there were financial discrepancies and shoddy works in Soroti City under the Uganda Support for Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) programme.
The officials were appearing before the Parliamentary local government public accounts committee (PAC), led by Mr Martin Ojara Mapenduzi at Soroti City Council Hall last week.
The city clerk, Mr Ambrose Ocen, and the engineer, Mr Robert Kairu, were in the hot seat.
The Auditor General observed in his report that some of the projects that were awarded to the contractors reflected higher financial rates.
Mr Mapenduzi said the city council authorities awarded contracts to expensive service providers, who did shoddy work.
“When we looked at your reports and the audit reports, we cited so many discrepancies. Some roadworks are commensurate with their funding but why would there be discrepancies in your records if you were doing a good job?” he asked.
The roads that benefited from the USMID programme include Liverpool, Cemetery, Alanyu, Serere, and Central Avenue.
The audit report reveals that of the Shs609m meant for the procurement and installation of street lights, only Shs109m was advanced to the contractor before the onset of the work.
Ms Emma Rose Cherukut, the Woman MP for Kween District, said there was no value for money.
She tasked the city authorities to explain the discrepancies.
The accused say
Mr Kairu acknowledged that there were shoddy works in the previous projects but denied knowledge on how they happened.
He said he was not working in Soroti at the time of the construction.
Mr Ocen attributed the substandard work to the staffing gap.
“At Soroti City now, nearly everybody at the city is in the acting position except me, but including our engineer, he has been forced to handle technical matters contrary to his civil engineering,” Mr Ocen said.
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