By Cyprian Musoke and Joyce Namutebi

MPs on the public accounts committee yesterday queried sh6.8b spent on CHOGM beautification contracts, awarded to two firms.

In their second meeting with the local government ministry permanent secretary, Kashaka Muhanguzi, the MPs asked for the passports of the directors of Omega Construction and Prome Consultants in order to restrict their movements until the Criminal Investigations Department completes the investigations.

The committee was also told that the then local government state minister, Hope Mwesigye, headed the sub-committee on beautification, which was in charge of vetting the contracts.

The original contract sum for beautification was sh4.8b but it later shot up to sh6.8b, according to documents before the committee.

The MPs questioned an additional sh162m for the beautification of Queen’s Way round-about and the Muslim Sports Ground, on top of the original quoted price of sh351m.

Also queried was an additional sh280m for beautification of the stretch from Clock Tower on Ggaba Road to Munyonyo, up from the original contract of sh428m, and an additional sh55m spent on paving walkways on the Kampala-Entebbe road.

They further questioned how some contracts ended up costing double what was originally agreed, such as consultancy for the Entebbe-Kampala road beautification, which went from sh139m to sh296m, and Constitutional Square, which rose from sh297m to sh552m.

They wondered how Prome Consultants ended up doing construction work, and how the company was being paid even after former permanent secretary Vincent Ssekkono had told his successor not to give any more than the sh85m already paid.

“When Ssekkono left office, he said they should not be paid. No sooner had he reached the bottom of the stairs than someone conspired and paid the firm,” committee chairman Nandala Mafabi (FDC) said.

Theodore Ssekikubo (NRM) said when one drives from Clock Tower to Munyonyo, there are eyesore kiosks instead of trees that were supposed to be planted. “Nothing has been done to warrant payment of all this money,” he said.

The permanent secretary said grass had been planted but there was a problem of maintenance. He insisted there was value for money and explained that they paid the contractors relying on certificates issued by the private consultants.

After quizzing the ministry officials, the MPs zeroed on Eng. Andrew Kizza, who was the coordinator of the CHOGM beautification activities.

Pressed by David Bahati (NRM) to name the person responsible, Kiiza said they were working as a committee and had a project manager, Prome Consultants, directly assigned for the job.

He said the committee was headed by Hope Mwesigye and comprised himself, two engineers of KCC, Stephen Kinyera and Hakiza, and an engineer from the Entebbe Municipality Council, called Mukiibi.

On whether he disagreed with the special audit by the Auditor General, Kashaka defended himself saying it covered a specific period of time.

His response did not go down well with the MPs who dismissed his evidence was unreliable.

Oduman Okello (FDC) said Kashaka was behaving like a comedian. “We should remove the evidence of the accounting officer. Let us deal with people who were on board at that time. The accounting officer is wasting our time.”

The MPs resolved to summon Ssekkono, then acting permanent secretary Tom Maate and the procurement officer.