Uganda’s missions could do with fresh coat of paint

Office buildings and ambassador’s residences in at least six of Uganda’s 31 diplomatic missions around the world are in a sorry state and require either demolition to pave way for the construction of new structure or major facelifts.

Some of the affected missions include: the embassy in Washington DC, in the USA; the Uganda High Commission in Ottawa, Canada; the mission in Brussels, Belgium; Uganda’s mission at the United Nations (UN) in New York; and Uganda’s embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A report of the Auditor General for the period ending June 2023, which was recently released to Parliament, says the state of the buildings in question do “not reflect a good image of the country.”
Mr Vincent Bagiire, the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Monitor that the government requires a substantial amount to carry out renovations.

“Each mission has given us an estimate, but I would not say off [the] cuff what the total that we need is,” Mr Bagiire said.

Washington, USA
The report indicates that the two chancery buildings at the embassy in Washington DC are in “a sorry state and need urgent repairs.”
“There are severe structural problems on both buildings. There are cracks in the walls and the floor had surged on some sections of the buildings. The back porch on the building on Plot 5909 had collapsed due to an unstable foundation,” the report read in parts.
The ambassador, the report says, has since abandoned the official residence because most of the pipes are old, rusty and leaky. 

Ottawa, Canada
The two-storeyed red brick building located on 231 Cobourg Street, which was turned into Uganda’s High Commission in 1985, was condemned in 2014 by the Ottawa City authorities. They forthwith declared it unsafe. Attempts to have it demolished to pave way for construction of a new structure hit a dead end amid objections raised by Ottawa’s Built Heritage Sub-committee, which insisted on preserving against the advice of the city’s planners.

The AG’s report now says that the structure is in “a very sorry state”, adding that “a number of the mission’s assets are obsolete and require disposal.”

Copenhagen, Denmark
The report says it is likely to be closed on account of the state in which it is.
“The office is in dire need of renovation. The current state of the building portrays a bad image of the country and there is a risk that the city authorities could close the chancery any time,” the report says.
The official residence of the ambassador also remains unoccupied pending completion of renovations. As a result, Shs329 million was paid out as rent for the ambassador in the financial year 2022/2023, an expenditure which could have been avoided.

Brussels, Belgium
“The window frames, carpets, main entrance door and the gutters for the official residence were in a state of disrepair. As a result, the heating and cooling costs during winter and summer are escalated respectively,” the report says in regard to the state of the embassy in Belgium.

Addis, Ethiopia
The report further indicates that the state of the official residence of Uganda’s ambassador to Addis Ababa does not reflect a good image of Uganda.
Whereas there are plans to demolish the building housing the official residence to pave way for the construction of a new structure, the plans have been pegged back by delays in procuring a consultant and designs, the report says.
“While the procurement process of the consultant and the designs had started, the bids for the consultancy and designs were yet to be opened,” the report reads in part.

UN mission
The report indicates that Uganda’s mission at the UN urgently needs funds to the tune of Shs2.2 billion to cater to, among other things, installation of air conditioning facilities and repairs and refurbishment of the Embassy building.

However, Mr Bagiire insisted that the renovations had been carried out on the mission in New York.
“New York is not in a bad state. They did renovations. Their major issues were lifts, but those were fixed. I think they need to fix the air conditioning,” Mr Bagiire said.

Mr Bagiire also said issues around minor repairs can be sorted if missions were allowed to spend some of what they collect as non-tax revenue.
“We need a window for these missions that collect non-tax revenue to be able to utilise some of the funds on source instead of all of it coming back to the capital. So if the air conditioner is not working, they fix it instead of waiting for some of what they remit to Kampala to be sent back,” Mr Bagiire said.

Delayed constructions
In a related development, the Auditor General has highlighted delays in the commencement of construction of chancery and office residences at consulates in Guangzhou, China; Juba, South Sudan, and delayed acquisition of premises in Tokyo, Japan.

Construction of a consulate in Guangzhou was meant to have taken off in 2019, but has never commenced. Construction of an embassy building in Juba commenced in about 2012, but the building remains incomplete. Both have meant that Uganda continues to incur rent expenses that could be avoided.

In yet another related development, the planned acquisition of a property constituting a chancery and official residence in Tokyo Japan has not materialised since 2020 when it was first unveiled. The report blames the failure on lack of effort on the part of the envoys in Tokyo.