The Buhweju county Member of Parliament Hon. Mwijukye Francis, on Tuesday astounded locals when he stopped the commissioning of a 7km road constructed under the Community Agriculture Infrastructure Improvement Programme (CAIIP), whose standard he found wanting.
The construction of the Rukyeri, Kaniga, Mucumite, Kanunka road project which was awarded to Lexman Construction firm in 2014 at a cost of 600 million, was expected to be completed last year.
The company according to Mwijukye, requested for another one year extension of the contract which was supposed to expire this month.
“We were shocked however, when we went for the commissioning of the road. It was literally impassable. There is no value for money and the district engineer could not explain,” said the MP.
He added that the feasibility study was made before the commencement of the work but wondered why the contractors are complaining of the terrain.
Mwijukye said that as long as he is still the Member of Parliament, he will not accept misappropriation of public funds to continue and advised the Buhweju people not to use the road in question until it is completed since it could be dangerous to their lives.
He also revealed that the roads committee of the district shall sit and discuss the next step and also ask the contractors to explain allegations of defying contractual obligations.
When contacted, the Buhweju district engineer Dicklus Twinamatsiko told Chimpreports that it’s true the construction work delayed, but said it was due to challenges which included terrain.
“Though the physibility study was made, we never knew there would be rocks on the way; it really became expensive on the side of the contractor which could have led to some temporary constructions.