Leaders in Kalungu district are demanding the blacklisting of a company that constructed a seed secondary school in the area, accusing it of delivering poor quality works.
These have petitioned the Executive Director of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets; –PPDA, to take action against Mmacks Investments Limited, a firm that constructed Lukaya Seed secondary school.
In 2020, the government using a loan from the World bank hired Mmacks Investments Limited to undertake the construction of a 2.12 billion shillings seed secondary school in Lukaya town council.
However, the leaders are concerned that the school structures were constructed in a shoddy manner which amounts to abuse of public resources.
Ahmed Nyombi Mukiibi, the Kalungu district Chairperson wants the construction firm to be completely banned from executing any other government projects in the future as a punishment for its sheer ineffectiveness.
He indicates that the school buildings, which include classrooms, staff quarters toilets that were opened for utilization in January this year have already presented with visible defects; a direct representation of poor workmanship despite the huge sums of money injected into the project.
According to him, although the State Minister for Primary Education Joyce Moriku Kaducu recently instructed the contractor to correct the defects in the school structures before he is fully paid, there is equally a need to slap him with very tough penalties as a deterrence to other firms that may intend deliver government projects in a shoddy manner.
Mukiibi indicates that the same contractor was hired to build three other seed schools in other districts of Masaka and Lwengo, but to his disappointment, all projects were also done “below substandard”.
Charles Tamale, the Lukaya Town Council Chairperson indicates that the quality of works being delivered in government projects dents their integrity and technical competence, hence being an abuse of public funds.’
He demands that government gets tough on its projects by completely blacklisting both the directors and firms cited in any form of irregularities that compromise the quality of works delivered.
Jessica Kashumba, the Mmacks’ Site Manager of Lukaya Seed School construction project declined to comment about the questioned works, but Achilles Kiwanuka, the Kalungu District Works Engineer says they are in close contact with the contractor who is making arrangements to correct all the defects in the structures.
The PPDA Act apparently provides for suspension of the service providers that deliver substandard works but remains silent on the owners of the indicted firms, which gives them the opportunity to form new companies to continue abusing public funds.
For more clcik here
