The management of Nadunget seed secondary school in Moroto district has raised concern over the quality of two newly built classroom blocks by Lokodawuriang construction company. In 2021, Moroto district local government contracted Lokodawuriang construction company to construct and furnish the two classroom blocks at Shillings 89 million.
The construction was completed in June 2022 and the project was handed over to the school. However, the head teacher, Albert Machecho, says the project is substandard. Machecho explains that he was posted to the school when the construction was at a ring beam level and he has been monitoring the whole process.
Machecho says that around June, the building was completed and commissioned by the district officials immediately. He, however, says that they later realized the work was shoddy. Machecho explains that district officials were also monitoring the construction process but wondered why they remained quiet about the defects.
He says that they wrote several letters to the Chief Administrative Officer notifying him of the substandard work in vain. Machecho also accused the same constructor of delivering poor quality desks, which he says were delivered at night without any inspections.
Justin Tuko, the Moroto Deputy Resident District Commissioner confirms that the constructor did shoddy work, saying he directed the remaining money be withheld until he fixes the errors. Tuko said despite his orders to stop payment of the retention money, he was surprised to learn that the payments were completed before commissioning.
He said they are continuing with the investigations to understand why the money was paid before the completion of work.
Paul Oputa, the Moroto District Education Officer, says that they are aware of the defects on the buildings and the contractor has agreed to rectify them before he gets his retention money. Oputa applauded the school management for noticing the errors early enough before the elapse of the retention period.
‘’We are not in a panic because we are still holding his retention money, so he has to come back and correct all the errors before we clear his payments’’ Oputa reiterated.
Oputa denied the allegations of paying all the money to the constructor before completing the works. He said the money is still on retention until works .URN
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