Hon Asiku Abdulmtwalib the District Chairperson YDLG addressing Participants
By Achidri Akim
The Chief Administrative Officer Mr Asaba Innocent Birekeyaho called upon contractors to ensure timely completion of projects awarded to them by Yumbe District Local Government.
‘’once you start work, we shall expect you to execute it according to the provisions of the agreement and any delays on your side will definitely work against you’’ Asaba warns.
The Chief Administrative Officer while speaking during a site handover meeting held at the District boardroom, he confirmed the availability of funds for projects but, said the District shall only benefit if all stakeholders involved do their part as expected.
On the same note, the District chairman Honourable Asiku Abdulmutwalib cautioned the contractors to desist from the tendency of failure to timely execute projects and abandonment of project sites. He strongly stated that companies with such a record shall be blacklisted.
Among the projects to be commenced in Kulikulinga and Barakala town councils including Kochi, Kululu, Ariwa and other sub counties are; construction of Markets, Resource centres and play fields.
The various projects soon to be started are funded under Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Additional Funding (USMID AF) with funding from World Bank targeting the refugee hosting districts.
According to the public finance management Regulations 2016 section 17(1), ‘’A vote or local government, that does not expend all the money appropriated to that vote or local government within the financial year for which it was appropriated, shall repay the unexpended balance of money to the consolidated fund by the 31st of July of the proceeding financial year’’.
It is upon this background that the leadership of Yumbe District is demanding contractors to complete projects timely so that funds are not returned to consolidated account.
The top representatives of TI DAN Investments, Spider Contractors, Abude Contractors and CMD Investments promised to do quality work within the agreed time frame.
However, the contractors fear that construction costs may go higher than earlier projected due to the continued increase in the price of construction materials therefore posing a possibility of slowing down the progress of the projects.