Parliament approves sh51.4b loan for technical institutes

PIC: Parliament committee Chairperson Syda Bbumba /File photo

Parliament yesterday approved government request to borrow 14.3m dollars (sh51.4b) from OPEC Fund for International Development to improve the capacity of various technical colleges in the country.

Before the house approved it, the parliament committee on national economy through its chairperson Syda Bbumba presented a report on the loan request in which it approved the request.

Justifying the loan, Bbumba said the loan request is a timely intervention by government since the rate of unemployment in the country is high.

"There are so many students especially girls who dropout and these technical institutes will give them skills to create jobs," she explained.

Bumba however reported that in its field visits, the committee had observed that shoddy work had been done in most of the newly built technical institutes.

The committee urged the relevant government agencies to ensure that in implementing such projects quality is ensured.
The Nakaseke North MP also reported that nearly in all the newly constructed technical institutes which she termed as white elephants, there were no activities going on.

Bumba also informed the house the committee had resolved not to entertain any loan request any more for which counterpart funding has not been provided.

Part of the sh18trillion lying idle as reported in the latest Auditor General's report is attributed to delays by government to provide counterpart funding.

The finance committee chairman Henry Musasizi urged government to expedite its promise of ensuring that every constituency in the country gets a technical institute.

Justifying the loan, the state minister for primary education Rosemary Sseninde said part of the loan will be used to build dormitories, multipurpose halls, and staff houses in the newly constructed technical institutes to make them operational.

"The loan will therefore help us to cover gaps in the 14 newly constructed technical institutes," Sseninde explained.

 Meanwhile, Kasanda North MP Patrick Nsamba moved a motion seeking leave to draft a private member's Bill titled The Local Content Bill 2017.

Nsamba noted that whereas government came up with the policy of Buy Uganda Build Uganda, it has failed to operationalize it.

The legislator explained that his Bill will compel foreign investors to employ Ugandans and to use local input in their investments and to have local firms empowered.