By KT Reporter
The Chief Monitor of Government Projects in the Teso and Karamoja sub-regions, Lt. Gen. Peter Elwelu, has expressed frustration over the delayed completion of the low-cost seal tarmac project in Tubur Town Council, Soroti District.
In March 2024, three Soroti officials—acting district engineer Alex Oryekot, assistant district engineer Simon Okello, and procurement officer Haggai Ewena—were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit and detained at Soroti Police Station over allegations of abuse of office.
The order for their arrest was issued by the Deputy Director of the Anti-Corruption Unit at the Internal Security Organization (ISO), Fatuma Namukwaya, who was representing the Minister of State for Economic Monitoring, Beatrice Akello.
According to contract documents, the road project, initially planned to cover 0.9 kilometers at a cost of Shs 419 million, was reduced to 0.4 kilometers. It was alleged that this change would have resulted in a loss of over Shs 180 million, which the engineers should have saved from the omitted section.
Due to these irregularities, the district was forced to return Shs 419 million to the Consolidated Fund in July 2023 after failing to utilize it during the 2023/2024 financial year.
Former Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Ocen attributed the failure to a documentation mix-up. He explained that while the signed agreement specified 0.9 kilometers, the contractor only worked on 0.5 kilometers, violating the contract terms.
This month, Soroti LCV Chairperson Simon Peter Edoru announced that the government has released Shs 407 million for the same project. However, he expressed disappointment over the prolonged investigations into the matter.
In response, Lt. Gen. Elwelu pledged to follow up on the issue, criticizing the two-year delay in investigations as a serious hindrance to government service delivery-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
