The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The roads committee of Masaka city has called for a special inquiry into the management and allocation of public properties in the area.
The inquiry was mooted during a city roads committee meeting that was convened to review expenditure reports and consider priority projects to be executed under the Uganda Road Fund program in the next financial year.
The committee chaired by the Kimanya-Kabonera Division Member of Parliament Abed Bwanika, learnt that the city has unclear circumstances in which it lost a lot of its properties including land in green spaces and road reserves.
Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City Mayor indicates that besides the irregular allocation of plots in road reserves and greenbelts, she can hardly locate the certificates of titles for all public properties in the city. She explains that while taking over office from her predecessor in April this year, she never received an inventory of the city properties which raises a lot of suspicions about how many properties are remaining and their safety.
She says that they are currently faced with challenges of people coming up to claim ownership over many public assets in the city, whose mode of acquisition and transfer is however questionable.
According to Namayanja, the irregular transactions are affecting both the fixed and movable properties, citing motor vehicles whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba, the MP for Nyendo-Mukungwe Division, also Leader of Opposition in Parliament says that it is high time thorough investigations into all transactions on public properties in the area is undertaken.
He demands that the office of the City Clerk provides a clear inventory of all public properties in the area and their current status, to enable the committee to trace backward for them and take appropriate actions about them.
Stephen Asiimwe, the Masaka City Resident Commissioner notes that there has been a lot of cover-up by the local technocrats about the affairs of the city, which has left room for irregularities.
He says the inquiry will help them identify all the properties that were illegally acquired and have them recovered, and hold the culprits accountable.
Emmanuel Gakyalo, the Assistant Masaka City Clerk says that some of the irregularities were committed during the past leadership of the municipality.
He however indicates that they have notified the Ministry of Lands and Urban Deployment about the irregular land allocations and requested that the transactions and allocations be reversed.
Meanwhile, the committee also resolved to formally engage the line ministries of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and Local Government to interest themselves in the concerns and call the errant technocrats to order.
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