Lubowa hospital project behind schedule - minister

Health minister Jane Aceng has said construction of the International Specialised Hospital at Lubowa is 30 per cent behind schedule.

She, however, told Daily Monitor that she has received assurance from the contractor, Finasi, that it will be completed in time.

“The International Specialised Hospital at Lubowa is on course. The contractor, together with our engineer from the Ministry of Health, have been progressing well on the preliminary works and the preparation on ground and excavation has been done,” Dr Aceng said in an interview recently.

She added: “They are now preparing to start construction. They have shared with us the final designs of the hospital that have been approved and they have mobilised the equipment that they need on ground to begin work.”

Dr Aceng said although the hospital construction is 30 per cent behind schedule, they are optimistic that they shall catch up on the lost time.
“We hope that within the given two-year period, the project will be complete,” she explained.

Asked whether the court issues between Finasi and Roko over the project were resolved and what government stands to lose following the standoff, Dr Aceng said government will only start payments after construction of the hospital is completed and functional.

“The contractor for Lubowa is Finasi. The court issues were not against government. To the best of my knowledge, they were concluded between Finasi and Roko and an agreement was reached and we have a new contractor on ground,” Dr Aceng told Daily Monitor after meeting Parliament’s Committee on Health last month.

Sources close to the mediation between the two entities, speaking on condition of anonymity, yesterday said the matter was settled out of court, with the settlement remaining confidential between the involved parties.

The Lubowa project is being financed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) loan that was guaranteed by the government of Uganda.
Last year, Dr Aceng and her team were blocked from accessing the site.

Once complete, the hospital will have 264 bed capacity, 80 bed encology centre, doctors and nurses schools and accommodation.
It will take two years to construct the hospital and another six years for the investor to recover their investment before handing over to government.

Background to the project

Contractor woes. In May last year, Roko Construction Company petitioned court seeking to stop Finasi/Roko Construction SPV Limited and Finasi International Fzc from interfering with their work and to be in possession of the site for the proposed hospital.

On February 12, 2019, Parliament asked its committee on National Economy to look into a request by State Minister of Finance David Bahati seeking to issue promisory notes worth $378 million (about Shs1.3 trillion) to Finasi Special Purpose Vehicle Limited to construct a specialised hospital at Lubowa.

A promisory note refers to a document containing written promise to pay a certain amount of money to a specified person or bearer at a specified date or on demand.

However, some MPs rejected it on ground that it was unnecessary. They tabled a minority report contesting the government support to Finasi company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after they found out that the firm ordinarily deals in furniture and not hospital construction.

However, majority of the MPs, especially those from the ruling NRM party, voted to adopt the report, which said the project is economically viable and will save Ugandans billions of money spent on treatment abroad annually.

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