{"id":30004,"date":"2022-04-23T16:07:41","date_gmt":"2022-04-23T16:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal"},"modified":"2022-04-23T16:19:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T16:19:39","slug":"mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal","title":{"rendered":"MPs keen to pull the plug on Lubowa hospital deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>The vast bulk of lawmakers on the parliamentary Committee on Finance have strongly proposed that the government terminates the deal entered into with an Italian investor to construct an international specialised hospital in Lubowa.<\/p>\n

Despite Ms Enrica Pinetti being cleared in 2019 to start the project to, among others, reduce medical tourism, progress has stalled to a crawl.<\/p>\n

The project currently has no contractor, and an on-site inspection by MPs on Thursday revealed more troubling details.<\/p>\n

Mr George Otim, the acting commissioner for infrastructure in the Ministry of Health, puts the progress rate of the project at 23 percent.<\/p>\n

During their visit to the site, the MPs were dismayed to learn that nearly three years later, only a foundation for the main building has been laid.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the lawmakers want Ms Pinetti to submit, among others, copies of the agreement signed between her and the government, as well as the bill of quantities for the said project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to look at the violations which have happened so far because they should have finished this project in two years, having started in 2019. They have now pushed it up to 2024,\u201d Mr Paul Omara (Otuke County) said, adding: \u201cSo we are looking for violations to be able to cancel the contract and find a better way of completing that project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stalled works of Lubowa International Specialised Hospital located on the Kampala-Entebbe Road. PHOTOS\/DAVID LUBOWA<\/p>\n

Finance minister Matia Kasaija and his deputies Amos Lugoloobi (Planning and Development) and Henry Musasizi (General Duties) were also part of the on-site inspection that ascertained only peripheral works\u2014like construction of staff hostels and training school\u2014have been done.<\/p>\n

The snail pace at which the project is progressing compelled Mr Omara to term Ms Pinetti\u2019s company a \u201cbriefcase company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven more perplexing,\u201d he added, \u201cis that the said company appears not to have any financial backing [or] any [track record] in the construction of a hospital of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThey are basically hiring out some of the components of the contract to different parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Karim Masaba (Industrial Division, Mbale City) opined that since the project appears to be used to \u201csiphon\u201d taxpayers\u2019 money, \u201ca detailed investigation\u201d to establish \u201cwhat is going on here\u201d is of the essence.<\/p>\n

The stalled progress of the International Specialised Hospital in Lubowa started blipping on the radar following the demise of Jacob Oulanyah. The immediate past Speaker of Parliament was medevacked to the US (Seattle) for specialised treatment of late-stage cancer.<\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/p>\n

The trip to Seattle is reported to have cost the taxpayer Shs1.5b, contributing to the medical tourism bill that the hospital in Lubowa was meant to cure.<\/p>\n

When Shs319b was earmarked for the controversial Lubowa hospital in the Financial Year 2022\/2023 budget, matters came to a head.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. The vast bulk of lawmakers on the parliamentary Committee on Finance have strongly proposed that the government terminates the deal entered into with an Italian investor to construct an international specialised hospital in Lubowa. Despite Ms Enrica Pinetti being cleared in 2019 to start the project to, among others, reduce medical tourism, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-30004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nMPs keen to pull the plug on Lubowa hospital deal - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The vast bulk of lawmakers on the parliamentary Committee on Finance have strongly proposed that the government terminat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MPs keen to pull the plug on Lubowa hospital deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The vast bulk of lawmakers on the parliamentary Committee on Finance have strongly proposed that the government terminat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-23T16:07:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-23T16:19:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_7-62642703e3985.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"MPs keen to pull the plug on Lubowa hospital deal\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-23T16:07:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-23T16:19:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal\"},\"wordCount\":484,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_7-62642703e3985.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-keen-to-pull-the-plug-on-lubowa-hospital-deal\",\"name\":\"MPs keen to pull the plug on Lubowa hospital deal - 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