The Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are set to inspect the construction site for Lubowa Hospital on Monday 15th April 2024. The visit is part of investigations into findings by the Auditor General that Shs286bn has so far been paid in excess for no works done at Lubowa.
This was after George Otim, the Commissioner of Health Infrastructure, at the Ministry of Health 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.
This prompted the Committee to ask Otim to make a statement with Parliament CID ahead of the Committee's planned oversight visit to Lubowa next week.
“I had full access to Lubowa site and I am disputing the assertion by Auditor general. I am not aware of any overpayment, I paid for works implemented,” said Otim.
“The agreement wasn’t for you to pay per schedule. The schedules were there, but before each promissory note, to be issued, there was a requirement for the certificate of completion of works done certified by you. Whose interests were you protecting? We depended on you solely, you were our eyes, eyes onsite and the Auditor noted there was an overpayment. You caused a financial loss, on the basis of your signature, the Accountant General went ahead to actualize and pay. You were entrusted with the duty to protect the interest of Ugandans and you failed,” said Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala County).
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.
