Court blocks UNRA report approval

Kampala.

The High Court has halted the implementation of the report of the Justice Bamugemereire Commission of Inquiry into mismanagement and corruption in the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) until the court concludes the petition challenging it.

The interim order was issued by the Deputy Registrar of the High Court in Kampala, Mr Alex Ajiji, on July 14. The interim orders will remain in force until August 22 or until contrary orders of the court.

The court’s interim orders to block the enforcement of the UNRA report findings follow a petition by two road construction firms which were implicated in fraud and other wrongs doings.

Petition
The aggrieved road constructions firms Dott Services Ltd and General Nile Company for Roads and Bridges filed the petition in court through their lawyers Tumusiime, Kabega & Co Advocates. The road construction firms submitted to court that unless an interim order was issued suspending implementation of the report, the government would blacklist them and as a result, their business would close.

“ An interim order doth issue to restrain the respondent (Attorney General) in particular, the officials, servants, agencies, ministers, parastatals of government or anyone acting under their authority from acting upon the findings or enforcing the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into the allegations of mismanagement, abuse if office and corrupt practices in UNRA contained in the report of the commission of inquiry January 29, against the applicants,” the court’s interim order reads in part. In an affidavit in support of the petition, the director of Dott Services, Mr Boinapally Venugopal Rao, states that upon reading Justice Catherine Bamugemereire’s UNRA report, he found that it contained falsehoods, unfounded allegations and was biased against them.

In the affidavit, Mr Rao stated that the commission of inquiry recommended the companies be blacklisted and refund the monies paid to them by UNRA in four contracts they signed with the roads agency. He names the contracts as reconstruction of Tororo-Mbale Road (49km), reconstruction of Mbale-Soroti Road (103km), periodic maintenance of Jinja-Kamuli Road (58km)and upgrading of Ishaka-Kagamba (35.4km).

Mr Rao says Justice Bamugemereire’s report unfairly implicated them. He says the probe accused them of lacking proper equipment which frequently broke down; collusion to defraud government and UNRA.

Accusations
The other accusations labelled against the two firms are poor, planning of works leading to excessive revision of the time and cost of the projects, lack of designs and late commencement of works which caused UNRA financial losses. It is also alleged that Dott Services varied the rates of the contract and connived with the then Works minister to reduce the width of the road. Another accusation is that Dott Services was fraudulently paid over Shs8bn as compensation for ‘unofficial’ extension of the contract time.
Mr Rao denies all the accusations and refutes findings by of the Justice Bamugemereire probe before shifting the blame to UNRA for the delays complained of.

Blame game
“The 1st applicant (Dott Services) wholly blames UNRA and the consultant for the above delays of 798 days and further denies that it lacked capacity of personnel and equipment to execute the contract works,” Mr Boinapally states in his affidavit..
The 1300-page report recommended criminal prosecution of 90 top former UNRA officials and recovery of Shs4 trillion that was abused or stolen in outright fraud.
The commission inquired into the construction of several highway road projects, land acquisition and compensation.

BACKGROUND
In June last year, President Museveni appointed a commission of inquiry led by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire to inquire into alleged mismanagement, abuse of office and corruption in UNRA.
In May this year, the Commission handed over the report to President Museveni at State House Entebbe.