Buyende district sued over pay

The contractor claims the district has failed to pay them despite completing work.

A construction firm that won a tender to construct a three classroom block, an office and a store at Kirimwa Primary School has sued Buyende District Council to court for breach of contract.

Bisca Uganda Limited won the Shs57.2 million contract in November 2011 under the School Facilitation Grant of the Ministry of Education.

It is demanding that the district council meets the terms of the contract and also pays general and special damages for breach of contract.

According to the executive director of the firm, Mr Ismail Mufumbiro, the company was advanced Shs24 million with a promise that the balance of Shs28 million would be paid upon completion, but that this has not happened despite the fact that the building was handed over and is in use.
‘’The district recognised that we had completed 100 per cent satisfactorily and the second and final certificate for the balance of Shs28 million was dully prepared and signed but it was blocked by the CAO,” Mr Mufumbiro said.

He claimed that he had on several occasions visited the CAO’s office about the delayed payment, but had not received any plausible explanation.

However, the CAO, Mr David Kyeyago Maleka, told the Daily Monitor that Bisca Uganda Limited does not have any documentation to prove that they had done the work satisfactorily.

Mr Maleka said the documents the firm is carrying around showing the completion of work is suspect.

Buyende District in October came under the spotlight after several of its top administrators were handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department operatives attached to Local Government Public Accounts Committee of Parliament for investigations over alleged forgery of accountability receipts.

The officials were tasked to explain the queries raised by the Auditor General in the expenditure of Shs20 million for fuel with no proper receipts.

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