Masaka municipality on the spot over poor road works

Masaka, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT |  Masaka Municipality is on the spot over shoddy works and failure to account for funds meant for social services. 

The 2019 Auditor General’s report which was released recently, faulted Masaka Municipality leadership for failure to provide proper accountability for funds allocated to them by central government under the Uganda Road Fund, which caters for periodic maintenance of community access roads. 

The reports highlights that the Municipal council failed to implement road works and other activities under works to the tune of shillings 397 million. 

The auditor’s inspection on some of the roads also revealed poor workmanship and partial implementation of projects whose budget allocations had however been spent.   

Herman Ssentongo, the Masaka Resident District Commissioner who is directly charged with monitoring of public projects, says has also severally raised concerns of poor quality road works but the responsible authorities in the municipality have instead remained adamant.

Some of the poorly done works include; patching of potholes on the main streets, fixing of drainage channels and road pavements which were largely done is a substandard manner.  

Ssentongo has attributed the cited inconsistencies to the internal bickering among the municipality leaders and the technocrats, especially in the procurement department.

Mathias Mpuuga the Masaka Municipality Member of Parliament and chairperson of District Roads Committee says the report generally points to acts of collusion among the duty bearers to deliberately misappropriate public funds for personal gains.

Mpuuga has downplayed claims of internal bickering as the cause of the irregularities, arguing that these are deliberate ploys aimed at hoodwinking the public to avoid challenging the leaders on accountability.  

But John Bahengana, the Masaka Municipality Town Clerk distanced himself from the irregularities, explaining that he was not in office during the audit period.  

He says will corroborate with all forces towards restoring order in the municipality and ensuring proper public accountability.

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