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Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa is on Wednesday scheduled to inspect works at the 264-bed International Specialised Hospital currently under construction in Lubowa, Wakiso district.

Speaker Anita Annet Among made the revelations while presiding over plenary on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, in response to Allan Mayanja Sebunya (Nakaseke central, NUP) who wanted an ad hoc team formed to probe what to many appears to be a ghost project.

“I am going to assign my Deputy Speaker to go to Lubowa with a team on Wednesday. The Deputy Speaker should go to Lubowa and they will give us a report,” she said.

“Hon. Kivumbi already asked for the audit report which is already before the auditors and then we also expect a report from the team that is going there on Wednesday. We will expect a report on that and then we will also expect the certificates from finance from what they based release of the monies,” Among disclosed.

The development comes a day after Leader of Opposition (LOP) Joel Ssenyonyi’s entourage was restricted from touring the facility.

On Monday, Ssenyonyi accompanied by several legislators including shadow health minister Dr Timothy Batuwa (Jinja Southwest, FDC) visited the facility currently under construction to ascertain value for money.

Despite possessing correspondences from the health ministry, these were blocked by security from entering the gated premises.

This according to Among was hair-raising given that Parliament is supposed to oversee the implementation of Government programmes across the board.

“We are doing our oversight role so I think as the Government needs to guide us, should we just sit here, appropriate money, don’t see what is being done and we call it a day? Remember this is taxpayers money that we must account for,” she said.

Among added: “As part of the accountability to monies that we give out to institutions that get money from the Government and as per article 164 of the Constitution of Uganda 1995. It is just prudent enough that for us we must do our oversight role as Parliament and ensure that we make a follow-up on how much money has been given to an institution. How much money has been used, is there value for money?”

She pressed the Government through Third Deputy Premier Rukia Nakadama for answers.

“Can we find out from Government why we are not being allowed to do our role in a facility where parliament has put money and remember that money is taxpayers money?” she posed.

Government responds

“Sadly, Members of Parliament were denied entering Lubowa, I am going to look into that matter with the Ministry of Health because the members had a letter from the Ministry of Health. So, we are going to look at the matter so that members should access that area,” Nakadama assured.

MPs respond

Earlier on, Rwabushaija Margret Namubiru (Workers Representative, Indep) had raised concerns bordering on the secretive manner in which works are being executed arguing that the much-awaited hospital might be a white elephant in the making.

“They are sealing it off and nobody should go there because it is a ghost. If there was some work going on, then there is nothing to fear,” Namubiru said.

Going by the scenes that were captured by the media, she warned that the heavy military and Police presence at the locus is a recipe for disaster.

“But also coming when they are armed and MPs are not armed, it is threatening because one of these days we might hear that an MP has been shot at. Something must be done,” she added.

At the tail end, Namubiru said this lends credence to notions that the oversight mandate is slipping away from Parliament, something Attorney General (AG) Kiryowa Kiwanuka disagreed with.

“The last time I checked it was still on the statute book and the only way it can be removed is through this House. And I have been here often, lately and I have not seen such an amendment. So the oversight role of Parliament still exists,” Kiryowa explained.

That said, a section of legislators led by Emmanuel Ongiertho (Jonam County, FDC) are growing weary of constant trips to the facility only to be blocked at the entrance.

Five years ago, on August 6, 2019, the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy accompanied by the minister and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and several journalists were similarly blocked.

Authorities at the time hinged this on miscommunication.