- The contractor of lubowa wants to first procure protective gears before the visit.
- The project is being financed by Government as a Public private partnership.
Image: PARLIAMENT OF UGANDA
he speaker of parliament Anita Among has directed the public accounts Committee central to halt the site visit to Lubowa specialized hospital which was scheduled today after several postponements on the request of the contractor to procure personal protection gears-PPGs for the committee members.
Addressing journalists at parliament, the chairperson of PAC- Muwanga Kivumbi said that the speakers directive comes after the Ministry of Health wrote to parliament ,requesting to reschedule its visit to Lubowa.
However Kivumbi says it’s unfortunate for a contractor of a huge project of Lubowa to use the excuse of not having sufficient Personal Protective Gears such as reflectors, gumboots and head helmets to block MPs from conducting their oversight role crippling the works of the committee.
The committee is currently scrutinizing the 2022/23 auditor general's report which indicates that there was an over payment of 286 billion shillings to Lubowa specialized hospital which does not commensurate with the works done at the time.
The report also blamed the accountant general for issuing an over payment promissory note without ascertaining the certificate of milestone completion.
Kivumbi says that he will not be moved by any delays in conducting the oversight role and has vowed to summon the Ministry of Health next week on Monday to answer the audit queries about Lubowa specialized Hospital progress.
On several occasions, parliamentary delegations were blocked from accessing the Lubowa Specialized hospital site, first being the opposition MPs who were led by LOP Joel Ssenyonyi, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa and now PAC-C committee.
In 2019 parliament approved a guarantee of USD 379 million for the construction of Lubowa specialized hospital in Lubowa Wakiso district.
The project was financed through a promissory note from the Uganda Government as a public-private partnership .
Under the arrangement the Government was to finance the Italian investor Finasi Roko construction SPV Limited to construct and ran the specialized hospital and payback within eight years from the commencement of operations.