STAKEHOLDERS SWING INTO ACTION TO ADRESS IRREGULARITIES IN ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN ADJUMANI TOWN

By Nancy Aol

Adjumani

The hidden truth has finally seen day light regarding the fate of alleged shoddy road construction works being undertaken by Rock trust Construction Company limited, a company contracted to construct a 3.18km road in Adjumani town council, Adjumani district.

Mr. Luswata Buzibwa, the Resident Engineer in charge of the site supervision team of Segamu 14 and Hersun consults revealed the shocking truth saying  this requires more than three to four sub-contractors to save the dream of face lifting Adjumani town into a better status than it is now from fading away, he said he would be happily surprised if Rock Trust construction company limited completed the road works within the time frame.

This revelation came in the wake of a sit-down strike by the staff for the second time on 4th October 2023 demanding payment of their three months’ salary arrears. The 10.3 billion construction works commenced in early June and is expected to end on 31st December 2023 according to reports.

Mr. Luswata Buzibwa addressing the press

The Resident Engineer during a press briefing on the 4th October 2023  at Adjumani Multipurpose center divulged, “the road works so far, the progress makes us unhappy I must say we lack comfort within us, because the contractor should have progressed much more if we are to complete the project on 11th December ,you see we are left with, I should say two months of the six months and the progress is at just 10 percent with some structures that require a lot of time, I will give an example of the box curvets, we have three, two on Administration road and one on market road but to work at peace and work comfortably each of them should take up the two months because you should finish 28 days to begin building over it that is how it takes up the two months.”

He further stated that they are disturbed when it comes to progress, however, they are not sleeping and are pushing the contractor to make sure that they sub contract some of these works since it is recommended that 30 percent of the works should be sub contracted in order to speed up the works but in discussion with the district.

Luswata noted that the contractor must be hiding information from them (Consultants) because the process of sub-contracting is taking too long revealing that the sub-contractor should have been on ground some three weeks back.

The engineer further pointed with concern the handling of workers, “as you are aware today some workers, recently some workers were sacked and today other staff are on strike because of non-payment,” he pointed out.

The in charge of safeguards, Mr. Lukwago Ronald added, “as a consultant we are closely following up with the issue of contracts of the staff since the initial contract had irregularities which needed to be rectified.”

In the month of July 2023, the district Authority convened a crisis meeting after an uproar from concerned community members and the political wing of the urban council threatening to stop the contractor due to alleged shoddy works exhibited.

However, Mr. Ssembatya Francis the Executive Director Rock Trust via phone interview refuted all claims of incompetence promising that the road works shall be completed in time and all challenges related to finances will be handled come next week.

The dragging road construction works is being funded under Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructural Development Additional Financing (USMID-AF) whose decade long program will come to a closure on 31st December 2023.

COVER PHOTO: One of the roads under construction in Adjumani Town council By Nancy Aol