Augustus Turibalungi, the Masaka City Principal Engineer is on the spot over shoddy road works in the area.
Last year, Masaka City council released 1.2 Billion Shillings on its Road Fund scheme to cater for the replacement of tarmac and the opening up of drainage channel on Ssaza and Ssenyanga roads, but according to residents works delivered are substandard.
Rogers Bulegeya, the Masaka City Youth Councilor contends that the quality of works executed on the roads is not worth the value for money allocated to it. He says that the project was directly executed by the office of the city engineer, but to his surprise, the tarmac is already peeling off the road, barely six months after it was handed over for use.
Bulegeya who is also the Secretary for Masaka City Social Services Committee argues that besides the poor quality of bituminous materials the planned drainage channel was also not constructed as per the plan.
He says it has become a recurrent habit for shoddy road works to be delivered in Masaka, under the superintendent of the Principal Engineer who directly undertakes the projects.
Besides petitioning the office of the City Resident Commissioner demanding an inquiry into the road works, Bulegeya has also threatened to mobilize residents to forcefully close the City’s Engineering department as demand for immediate transfer of Turibalungi who he accuses of abdicating his responsibilities.
George Ssentongo, a resident of Katwe ward in Nyendo-Mukungwe division observes that the different junctions on their road have curved in, a direct indication of shoddy work.
Luke Ssekamwa, the Workers Representative to Masaka City Council says some of the technical staff are still used to the old ways they were doing in the former Municipal council, hence poor services delivery.
He says they are going to cause special injury to the quality of locally procured road works and have the responsible officer help accountable for their inefficiency some of which he says is deliberate.
Meanwhile, Steven Asiimwe the Masaka City Resident Commissioner has asked the councilors to halt their plans of closing down the offices, to allow him time to thoroughly study the complaints raised.
He says he is going to task the City Clerk and Engineer to provide accountability and status reports of the said roads.
Turibalungi, when contacted declined to comment on the matter saying he was out of office for two weeks.
