Nabbanja to order forensic audit into Mbale USMID roads

Mbale, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has promised to order a forensic audit to establish why Nabuyonga Rise and Mugisu Hill roads in Mbale city, built under the Uganda Support to Municipality Infrastructure Development (USMID) programme have developed defects only three years after being commissioned.

She was meeting officials drawn from over 20 districts in Eastern Uganda on Wednesday during a three-day assessment workshop on the local government performance in the last five years under the Prime Minister Delivery Unit program.

Nabbanja who moved with a copy of Red pepper that carried a story on the state of Nabuyonga Rise and Mugisu Hill roads in Mbale City Industrial and Northern City divisions, said that she wanted to show the participants some of the shoddy works going on in the country including Mbale city, the host of the meeting.

The two roads that serve as a bypass for heavy trucks have developed huge potholes at some sections making them impassable. The two are part of four roads constructed under the Uganda Support to Municipality Infrastructure Development (USMID) programme with funding from the World Bank worth 26 billion Shillings.

The Prime Minister noted that there is a serious problem of poor supervision of government projects and tasked Mbale city engineer to explain what could have happened to the roads.

The Mbale City Clerk David Kyansanku took to the floor to respond to the PM’s query since the engineer was not in the meeting. He explained that the roads are in a sorry state because of the heavy traffic that uses them.

Dissatisfied with Kyansanku’s explanation, Nabbanja promised to order a forensic audit to establish what could have happened.

Twenty-two districts in Eastern Uganda were assessed under the Prime Minister Delivery Unit program-PMDU in the areas of Education, Health and Infrastructure. Sironko, Namayingo, Manafwa, Soroti, Serere, Bududa, Bukwo and Mayuge districts emerged the best in education, health and infrastructure.

Professor Ezra Suruma, the Chief Coordinator of PMDU, said the government was spending a lot of resources but with limited output especially in the education sector. He said that since PMDU was initiated, there has been a tremendous change in the then worst-performing districts.

Geoffrey Sseremba, the Permanent Secretary in the office of the Prime Minister, said PMDU is an evidence-based model, which is helping to improve service delivery. He said that the OPM now plans to roll out the program to other regions of the country.

*****

URN