As people in the country battle poverty and hunger, a new report of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has detailed how Butaleja District technical officials connived with contractors to defraud the taxpayer of at least Shs2 billion.
On August 24, the committee tabled before Parliament the report based on its observations while interfacing with 12 district local governments and two municipalities across the country.
The committee engaged the 14 local government units against a backdrop of earlier findings of the Auditor General for the 2020/2021 financial year.
The districts include Kaabong, Arua, Pader, Luweero, Butaleja, Karenga, Kapchorwa, Kabale, Isingiro, Sheema, Ntungamo, including Bushenyi-Ishaka and Kabale municipalities.
In the case of Butaleja, the committee findings show how the district’s technical officials, including those at the Ministry of Education, engaged ‘dubious’ contractors who have since disappeared from the project sites upon receiving more than 95 percent of the payment.
It is established that the 12 different projects are valued at Sh2b.
For example, the committee discovered that the Education ministry contracted Masaka Agricultural Dealers Enterprises (U) Ltd to deliver ICT equipment to Nakwasi Seed SS under the Education department at Shs207.4m.
While Shs193.6 million was paid to the contractor, it was found that the equipment delivered has since not been installed and the contractor has disappeared.
Both the supplier and the contractor were procured by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
Irregularities also continued to brew over the construction of a general ward at Budumba Health Centre III by Petex (U) Ltd at Shs99.5m.
While the completion time for the project was June 2021 with Shs94.5m advanced to the contractor in February 2021, the company had abandoned the site by July this year.
Pending works included roofing, fixing of windows and doors, plastering, floor finishing, ceiling works, furniture and fittings, mechanical installations, electrical installations, and painting works, among others.
Dalach Investments Ltd and Enve Engineering Consults Ltd were contracted by the district in February 2021 to build two classroom blocks, with an office at a contract sum of Shs61.8m and Shs61.9m respectively at Busolwe Township and Busaba primary schools.
Both institutions were expected to be completed by June 2021, and Shs59.2m was advanced to each of the contractors for the project.
Whereas Dalach Investments Ltd handed over the facility to the district, PAC found out that at least 13 windows could neither open nor close properly, the floors and door concrete slabs were poorly constructed with the verandas exhibiting glaring cracks.
At Busaba P/S, the contractor is said to have roofed the building with substandard iron sheets (gauge-30 instead of gauge-28 as specified under the Bills of Quantities).
Fraud is also suspected in routine mechanised maintenance of the 5.6km Butaleja-Suni-Lwamboga road (Shs15.2m) and the 5.5km Nabinghande-Leresi TC road (Shs16.1m) that were conducted during the fourth quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year.
The Auditor General revealed that the roadworks on both roads were incomplete with generally poor workmanship and culverts were not installed as planned, leaving the road susceptible to flooding and erosion.
This newspaper established that the routine mechanised maintenance of the 4km Doho-Namulo and the 5.3km Nalusaga TC-Kanyenya roads also faced similar problems.
The Doho-Namulo road, which was repaired at Shs11.7m, reportedly had gravel heaped up in some sections rather than being applied to the surface, and that culverts had not been installed while the old culvert lines had collapsed and were filled with silt.
Although some sections of the Nalusaga TC-Kanyenya road were repaired at Shs444,000, it had loose surfaces since gravel was not applied, some sections were busy and eroded, the report added.
It also revealed that the district contracted Jenena General Enterprises Ltd to build an out-patient department (OPD) block at Bingo Health Centre II in the second quarter of the FY 2020/2021.
Although the contractor was paid Shs131.9m out of the Shs138.9m to execute the works, an auditors’ inspection of the works found that the site had been abandoned by September 2021.
Fixing of doors, furniture and fittings, painting, water systems and appliances, drainage works, electrical installations, solar power supply and lighting, and fire-fighting equipment had not been done.
Whereas the accounting officer (chief administrative officer) explained that the money was paid to the bank that was instructed not to release it until the works were done, the auditors observed that there were no measures to protect the site from being accessed by unauthorised persons.
According to the report, the payment to build the out-patient department block was irregular since it was done contrary to procurement laws.
“The committee recommends that the police investigate the officers who were responsible for this project (accounting officer, engineer, CFO (chief finance officer) and DHO (district health officer) with a view of possible prosecution.”