The Parliamentary Health Committee, headed by Dr.Charles Ayume, a Member of Parliament representing Koboko Municipality, has asked the government to halt the construction of the Ugx1.44 trillion Lubowa International Specialized Hospital, citing the skyrocketing public debt that has hit Ugx97 trillion.
Dr. Ayume made these remarks while chairing the presentation of the 2024/2025 national budget presented by the Ministry of Health, where they admitted to the committee that, for two years, there were no construction works that took place at Lubowa.
“You are very aware that our economy is not very healthy; you saw the auditor general’s report; our national debt is about Ugx97 trillion; I am not sure we shall get money for some of these projects,” Ayume stated.
He advised that they should suppress some new infrastructure projects, including Lubowa, and complete what is at stake, like those that require Ugx2 billion or Ugx3 billion.
George Bokha, a Member of Parliament representing Obongi County, and one of the committee members questioned why the Ministry of Health asked for Ugx2.7 billion to supervise works at Lubowa that had stalled for two years with nothing on the ground.
“A supplementary budget was requested for supervision of works; you don’t supervise stalled works; you supervise work in progress. What basis and rationale was used for requesting funds for supervision when the entity knows work has stalled?” Bokha said.
The Minister of Health, Jane Ruth Aceng, had last year defended the request for additional Ugx.2.7 billion for supervision, claiming the funds will go towards facilitating the movement of the consortium of engineers from the Ministry of Works and Health to supervise works after the new contractor takes over, adding that no funds were allocated for consultancy services.
The Lubowa hospital project was launched in 2019 on a two-year contract, and the contractor was supposed to handover the project to the government within 10 years. However, they are not on schedule, and despite receiving funding of Ugx1.4 trillion, nothing is on the ground so far.