When I read the report by the Auditor General on the rot in the Ministry of Works, I got disturbed, and to me, all this was deliberately caused by one person who was the Commissioner for Roads Design during the time of UNRA.
As Minister for Works, my brother Fred Byamukama should immediately disconnect his advisers if he wants to remain relevant in the fight against corruption in that ministry. He has to go an extra mile to study the responsibilities of every single officer in that ministry, and this will make him understand that he has been surrounded by vultures as advisers who want to see him fall down badly.
When I looked at one of the roads quoted in the Auditor General’s report, that’s the Busega-Mpigi Expressway, who should be blamed for that abandoned or delayed-to-be-completed road?
To me, in my own opinion, the person who should be held responsible for all this mess is Commissioner Isaac Wani, who’s still in the office, interfering with proper investigations.
Why do I say he should be responsible? Because at his position as Director of Network Planning and Engineering in UNRA by then, he was the technical adviser to the accounting officer, so the accounting officer would not take any position without seeking his advice.
Even if there was delegation or a mistake caused by his subordinates, he remains accountable.
Mr. Wani’s responsibilities were to prepare bidding documents and also initiate procurement. So, to me, shifting the blame for abandoned work or slow work to the graduate engineers is just a scapegoat. He can’t get out of the scene of crime.
If he had played his role as a technical officer and adviser to the accounting officer, all this mess going on in the Ministry of Works should not have happened.
This is where I call on Mr. Byamukama to check the direction he’s using and get back to the junction and take the right route. The route he is taking is being misled by the same people who shouldn’t be in the office as of now to pave the way for investigations.
I’m entitled to my opinion as a Ugandan, and I want to thank our Badman General Muhoozi Kainerugaba and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for the launch against corruption in our country. For sure, Ugandans are now discovering that the government has been pouring money down to the communities, but a few individuals embezzle it all.
Long live our President, and long live our Badman General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
