An extraordinary council sitting for Arua City on Thursday left several councilors bickering after they were conditioned to approve payment of UGX over 1.5 billion USMID Additional Funding to a contractor two years later. The money, which was specified as a contractual obligation, accrued after China Seventh Railways Group-CSRG, which was contracted to undertake World Bank-funded road, street, and drainage works in Arua City from 2022, claimed they were not fully paid over 1.2 billion shillings by the then Arua Municipal Council, a responsibility the City Council has now inherited.
Between 2022 and 2024, CSRG was contracted to upgrade over 6 kilometers of roads in Arua Municipality, construct drainage channels, and also install street lights, but several amendments were later made to the contract period, extended works and time, which resulted in additional documents signed to guide the council in effecting payments.
However, on more than two previous council sittings, the same matter arose but the said documents went missing for over two years until last week when the Ministry of Local Government summoned Arua City officials for three different meetings and directed that council approves payment of the over 1. 5 Billion shillings within the next four days or the City risks losing 126 Billion shillings allocated for it under Uganda Cities and Municipal Infrastructure Development-UCMID for 2026/2027 financial year.
Presenting the motion for approval of the USMID AF of the over 1. 5 billion shillings to the councilors, Doreen Onyiru the Secretary for Finance and Administration, Arua City Council, said out of the 15 billion owed to the contractor, only 13.4 billion was paid, leaving an unpaid balance of over two billion shillings, of which more than 426 million was to remain in the council account.
However, several councilors questioned why the addendum documents were not made available to the council whenever the same matter came up in the first council of the City and why they are being forced to act now within a short period of time.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Alionzi-aka Dangote, the new Mayor of Arua City, explained that it’s important for the council to approve the money to avoid plunging the council into legal obligations.
Despite heated debate and fears of syndicated corruption that lasted for over two hours, Teddy Yako, the Speaker of the Arua City Council, was forced to rule that the council needed to approve payment of the money as it was determinant for the UCMID funds.
Civil society actors in Arua City, who filled up the council gallery, were equally perplexed after the Speaker refused to answer queries raised by different councilors.
The over five-hour extraordinary council meeting was also attended by an assistant commissioner from the Ministry of Local Government, the RCC Arua Betty Otekat, the City Clerk David Kyasanku, and leaders from the two divisions of Ayivu and Central, who did not respond to the heated discussions-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
