The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Aceng has defended the recent request for additional Shs2.7Bn for supervising works at Lubowa Hospital.
Acheng said that the funds will facilitate the movement of the consortium of engineers from the Ministry of Works & Ministry of Health to supervise works, after the new contractor takes over the site because Gov’t didn’t allocate any funds for consultancy services.
“For those two years when there was no works, there was no supervision, now work has to commence and there must be supervision. And recall, there was a lot of building material which was bought, and is on ground, we need to know if it is of good use. Whether the contractor can still use them, all that is required. So leaving the contractor to go on ground alone would be disastrous to us,” said Aceng.
However the Chairman of Health Committee of Parliament Dr Ayume Charles (Koboko Municipality) asked Gov’t to halt the construction of Shs1.44Trn Lubowa Specialised Hospital due to the sky-rocketing public debt that has hit Shs 97Trn.
In 2020/21, Parliament passed a budget of close to 400 billion to construct a Specialized Hospital at Lubowa by an Italian Investor Enrica Pinneti but to date nothing was done promoting Ugandans to ask why the government continues to budget for this project!
