Museveni orders army to build schools, health centres

President Museveni has directed the Ministry of Health and that of Education to use the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) to implement the construction projects this financial year.

In a July 1 letter to the Ministry of Health and that of Education and Sports, the President said the move will reduce time wasted in procurement processes and save funds.

“This is,therefore, to direct that with effect from the Financial Year 2021/2022, all new construction projects for health facilities and schools must be undertaken by the army construction brigade, as a pilot [project]. This directive will be gradually extended to cover other sectors of government,” Mr  Museveni said.

The President’s senior presidential press secretary, Ms  Linda Nabusayi, confirmed yesterday President Museveni directives to the two ministries.

President Museveni said the UPDF has developed capacity and they have saved a lot of money and time by contracting it in several projects.
“I am certain that we can avoid all the delays in implementing government construction projects by utilising the army construction brigade to undertake these works,” he said.

Allocation
The Ministry of Education is to spend more than Shs40b on emergency construction of school facilities in primary and secondary schools this financial year.
The Ministry of Health will also spend more than Shs30b in construction projects in the same period.

The President’s directives will affect the procurement system since some projects implementation had already been started and ministries were waiting for more funds to complete them.

The government has been pushing for open bidding for construction projects, which experts said leads to transparency and accountability.