Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, has issued a two-week ultimatum to the Parliamentary Commission, demanding a comprehensive status report on the stalled Shs287 billion project.
Speaker Among expressed growing frustration over the delay and questioned the project’s progress under the management of Roko Construction Company Limited.
Early this week, Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi and the shadow cabinet members were denied entrance by Roko Construction Limited’s security to carry out their oversight responsibilities.
Ssenyonyi narrated that he wrote a letter on the October 8,2024, informing the Management of Roko Construction Company of his plan to visit, but upon arrival, his team was denied access, but instead, he was presented with a letter from Mark Koehler, the Managing Director of the Company, informing him of the decision by the Board of Directors not to allow the team into the Company premises.
Ssenyonyi sought to know how the Company received the funds from Ugandan taxpayers and utilized them yet the staff complained of working for four (4) months without pay.
Ssenyonyi further revealed that there are plans by the Government to table a Supplementary Budget very soon, in which Roko is set to benefit from another bailout, despite there not being any accountability on how the previous bailout funds have been spent.
“I went with colleagues, after I wrote on October 8, 2024 to the Management of Roko Construction Limited, that we will go and interface with them because so far, government has given them Shs263.3 billion and there have been numerous concerns, the staff haven’t been paid for four months. There are numerous projects including our new chambers that aren’t being attended to. But on going there to carry out our oversight functions, we found a letter at the gate, written back to me, saying that the Board has denied us as MPs access to the premises of Roko Construction Company,” he said.
Roko Construction Company received the first batch of the money in July 2022 but ever since, projects have stalled and the workers are complaining of no pay.
