Engineers warned against shoddy work, embezzlement towards road construction

Amos Tayebwa

Mbarara

Members of Parliament from Mbarara District led by the Woman MP Margret Rwebyambu and MP Basil Bataringaya Rwankwene for Kashari North Constituency have both warned the District Engineers against embezzlement of funds and shoddy works on the three roads that were launched for rehabilitation.

Last week, the two Members of Parliament in conjunction with Mbarara District Local Government Leadership, RDC and other stakeholders launched the construction or rehabilitation of three different roads from various sub-counties of Mbarara District.

These roads will cost the Government about UGX.164, 750,000=. The work for the construction of these roads will be taken up by the Mbarara District Engineering Department.

Assistant District Engineer Arbson Agaba who represented the District Engineer mentioned the roads that are going to be rehabilitated or constructed and the costs of the money.

Among these include Mile 22 Bubare -Nyamiriro road that will cut across Rubindi Town Council to Rubindi Sub-county. This is a 15 km road that will cost about UGx 97.5M and work will take only 20 days. Some of the activities within this road construction include installation of culverts six lines, grading and marum spot gravelling.

Another road that is going to be constructed includes Rubindi Town Council -Kashare road which is 8.5km that is going to cost UGX. 49,250,000=, among the activities to be done on this road include the elevation of four lines of culverts, Maruming of 1km and heavy grading.

Finally, the team also launched the construction of a 9km road of Ntura-Nyamiyobwa- Nkondo that neighbors Ibanda District in Igorora. It will be heavily graded and rolled at the cost of UGX.18M and the construction will only take 10 days.

However, the Legislators were Suspicious whether these monies would properly be used for its purpose.

They have appealed to locals Leaders and other stakeholders to be on look and efficiently monitor the construction of these roads to ensure there is value for money. They were also asked that they should fight against embezzlement of the funds by the Engineers.

Margaret Rwebyambu, the Woman MP told and warned the Engineers that tendency or the vice of doing shoddy work on government roads must stop.

“We have decided to be strictly on ground to purposely monitor all the Government projects that are under construction. I want to strictly warn the Engineers or contractors that whoever will construct a road and it comes out a substandard one, that person will not be paid. As leaders, this time we are committed to fight this vice because it had become a habit in most local government Council projects. We have now agreed that when the road is constructed, before it is commissioned we shall first take a thorough monitoring and see if they have done what was put in the Bills of Quantities (BOQs), and this is when they will be paid when we find all is okay. And for these roads that we have launched today, for any fault or shoddy work the Engineer will be held accountable” said Rwebyambu, Woman MP Mbarara District.

In his presentation, the Kashari North MP Basil Bataringaya who doubles as the Chairman Roads Committee Mbarara District appealed to the District Engineers who are going to work on the roads that were launched to follow the BOQs.

“As we have launched the roads in Kashari North similarly with the roads in Kashari South, what we require from the Technical Staff, especially the District Engineers is to follow the BOQs. However, supervision and monitoring is done by a cross-section of the public, and the public to do proper monitoring and accountability for this money that was mentioned, they need to understand the BOQs. Therefore, as Chairman District roads Committee I have asked the District Engineer to interpret and soften the language used in the BOQs into descriptive mode so that each individual can understand what is written in the BOQs. So those who are monitoring know that this section is for maruming, this section is for culverts, this section is for heavy grading, that way we shall achieve accountability and proper monitoring of the project” said Bataringaya, MP Kashari North.

Apparently, the Leadership of Mbarara District, especially the Members of Parliament have intensified the road network and infrastructure to ensure there is community outreach as far as transport systems are concerned.  In the previous years, Kashari and the entire Mbarara District had suffered poor road networks compared to today’s regime.