The 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 speaker’s 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 Gear such as reflectors, gumboots and head helmets to block MPs from conducting their oversight role crippling the works of the committee.
The report also blamed the accountant general for issuing an overpayment 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’s 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 the 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 run the specialized hospital and pay back within eight years from the commencement of operations.
