President Yoweri Museveni has expressed concern at the high level of corruption in the works ministry especially the road sector. He said that road contractors collude with government officials and then do shoddy work without sanction.
The President who was on a one day working visit in Kasese to promote the wealth creation campaign made the remarks yesterday at a public rally at Kyarumba sub-county headquarters in Bukonjo East county.
He said shoddy works have led to most of the roads being worn out before their expected life span, noting that as a result of corruption, the country did not get value for the trillions injected in thre raod sector as contractors continuously colluded with government officials to do shoddy work..
“I have been told that the Fort Portal – Kasese road is in that poor state because it was poorly done due to corruption and we have to reconstruct it after such a short time. This is unacceptable,” he said.
The President said he appointed a strict woman, Allen Kagina, to head Uganda National Roads Authority and that she asked him to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry which he did to bring the culprits to book.
“What is important for people to know is that whoever ate government money will have to pay it back on top of being punished in accordance with the law,” he said.
The President said that government has allocated 6.6 million shillings for the construction of a new and permanent bridge on River Nyamwamba which was washed away by the recent floods in the area.
He said the National Resistance Movement government has registered success in several sectors because of cohesive and strategic planning that prioritizes the most important sectors of the economy such as peace, roads, energy and human resource development.
“Many people have advocated for salary increase at the expense of infrastructure development but we had to be firm and resist the pressures because infrastructure developments have long term benefits to the economy,” he said.
The President assured Ugandans that their security is guaranteed because of the support offered by the citizens to the UPDF.
“I want to thank Ugandans for supporting the UPDF because you are the source of our army’s strength and I can assure you national peace is guaranteed,” he noted.
On education; the President said that due to different interventions and programmes, the national literacy rate is now at 78% and added that government had embarked on a programme of skilling Ugandans so as to create jobs.
Speaking about health service delivery, the President said that government was immunizing all children against 13 diseases including survival cancer and hepatitis B but warned the population against promiscuity that has seen a rise in new HIV/Aids infections.
“As citizens your duty is to safeguard your lives, work to get out of poverty, promote peace and safeguard that peace by voting wisely and voting NRM that will guarantee that peace,” he said.
He noted that to overcome poverty Ugandans especially in rural areas needed to engage in modern agro production, adding that the reason UPDF officers were sent to all constituencies of Uganda was to supervise the wealth creation programme.
