Abubaker Birungi, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner of Mubende, has issued a stern warning to government workers who misuse funds designated for development projects.
Birungi emphasized that the government invests substantial resources in these projects, but the funds are often misused by workers who fail to use them for their intended purposes.
Birungi made the remarks on August 12, 2024, in Butologo, Kiruma sub-county in Mubende district, when he had gone to commission Kitule Health Centre III. However, he did not commission it because it was incomplete, with substandard works.
The RDC added that many projects in Mubende district are not completed because government workers in the district ask for bribes from contractors to give them contracts when given funds to build schools or hospitals. As a result, contractors end up doing substandard work regardless of the consequences.
’’If President Yoweri Museveni had come to commission this health center, he would not be happy, and all the responsible parties would be arrested immediately because a lot of shoddy work was done. For instance, the face boards are old, the ceiling has holes and was poorly constructed, the water tank was put on a weak stand and is about to fall off, and the building walls only have undercoat paint. Therefore, I am not going to commission this hospital until all mistakes are rectified immediately,’’ Birungi noted.
Birungi further ordered the Mubende district project engineer, Dickson Kateregga, to rectify all mistakes and construct the government health facility as per plan.
’’The district should halt paying the contractors that were given to this project until all works that were substandardly done are properly rectified and reconstructed, including the cracked walls,’’ he said.
In April 2024, three Mubende district officials, including the acting district health officer, the district engineer, and the civil engineer, were arrested by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) for the mismanagement of UGX 150 million that was approved in the financial year of 2022/2023 for the expansion of the maternity wards at Kibalinga Health Centre III and Kasambya Health IV by reducing the budget for Kibalinga Health Centre III to UGX 35 million and awarding the UGX 33 million contract to the lowest bidder.
