MUSEVENI NEEDS TO MANAGE THE FOREIGN DEBT PROFESSIONALLY

Museveni's Government has borrowed a lot of money to get things moving, this borrowing calls for political responsibility on Museveni's part and those technical people. It will be most irresponsible if because of the borrowing, and bad management of the debt, we end up making the lives of those Ugandans yet to be born to suffer with the bedt burden. It is against this background that Museveni as a person MUST ensure that as his Government borrows, he has the political responsibility to reduce on consumption spending and the corruption in Government among other things. William Kituuka Kiwanuka STOP HIRING PRIVATE CONTRACTORS - MUSEVENI President Museveni and other officials tour one of the first consignment of road equipment for the Phase 2 of the Local Government Project funded by a loan from the Chinese government yesterday. The President said the equipment will help in tarmacking most of the country’s roads. PHOTO BY joseph kiggundu By Risdel Kasasira (email the author) Posted Tuesday, June 19 2012 at 00:00 In Summary The President advised local governments to start using the available equipment since private contractors are expensive. Kampala Local governments should stop giving road maintenance and construction contracts to private contractors because of the high costs involved in hiring them, President Museveni advised yesterday morning. The President asked all Chief Administrative Officers, Resident District Commissioners and Local Council Chairpersons in the country to use the newly-acquired 450 tractors, wheel loaders and trucks received from the Chinese government to maintain and construct upcountry roads rather than using private contractors. “Why should you spend billions of shillings on private contractors when you have this equipment? I suggest that local governments start doing this work instead of hiring expensive contractors,” he said. The road construction equipment worth $100 million was procured through a soft loan extended to the government to be paid back in 40 years. With this Chinese consignment, each district will have a dump truck, grader, wheel loader, excavator and a bulldozer which the Minister of Local Government, Mr Adolf Mwesige, said will cover 13,000 district roads. Share This Story 8Share This, according to Mr Museveni, will “tremendously reduce potholes”. He, however, also warned local government leaders against misuse of the machines. State Minister for works John Byabagambi said the ministries of Works and Local Government have signed a memorandum of understanding to recall machines that are misused by local leaders. The Chinese ambassador in Uganda, Mr Zhao Yali, said more equipment would be arriving in the country in a few months. The Chinese government has also established six zonal service centres in different parts of the country to ease routine maintenance on the equipment. “To ensure this equipment works well, China FAW Group will set up centres in Kampala and five other stations in the main towns to train local technicians, and also provide maintenance services,” he said. Previously all 22 municipal councils were sharing three road units with each unit composed of one dump truck, grader, wheel loader and excavator but with the new consignment, each municipality will have its road unit. rkasasira@ug.nationmedia.com