Banishing the ghosts of time and cost overruns? President Yoweri Museveni (also the commander in chief of Uganda’s Armed Forces), in 2021 ordered construction projects in government institutions be handed to the Army’s Engineering Brigade to execute. This was against the backdrop of constant complaints of time and cost overruns on state projects executed by private contractors.
Now the Army says in just over three years, they are at about 70 per cent of completing 285 construction projects handed to them – progress they say could be better if all the budget commitments were disbursed.
In an exclusive interview with The Infrastructure Magazine at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters at Mbuya, the Director of Information in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces/Spokesperson Ministry of Defence & Veteran Affairs, acting Maj. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, said their Engineering Brigade had completed 155 of the 285 projects across different ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs) and local governments.
He said the delays in some of the remaining projects is due to shortfalls in funds disbursement by the user departments.
Gen. Kulayigye told us that theystill need Shs122.5billion to complete all the 285 public construction projects.
He added that out of the over Shs370.3billion planned for the execution of all the projects to completion, the government has released about Shs199.3billion
“We are yet to receive over Shs122.5billion so far to complete these projects in various MDAs.”
The projects, according to Kulayigye, are spread across the various government ministries including Education, Health, Internal Affairs, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ministries, Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Judicial Service Commission (JSC), district local governments and Kampala Capital City Authority.
The directive of the President to hand over government projects to the Army has been protested by the private contractors among other reasons arguing that the move will starve the private sector in the construction sector of badly needed business. They also questioned the capacity and expertise of the UPDF Engineering Brigade to deliver big construction projects.
The other argument was that the directive infringed the tenet of competition in a free market economy.
In his July 1, 2021 letter, addressed to various cabinet ministers, the president expressed disappointment with the fact that many government projects were taking too long to be completed, faulting it on the prolonged procurement processes on top of other setbacks including corruption.
“I am very certain, we can avoid all these delays in implementing government construction projects by utilising the army construction brigade to undertake the works,” Museveni said at the time.
Under the Ministry of Education & Sports, Kulayigye said the army had been handed 36 projects. Of these 31 have been completed, while five were still ongoing.
Out of the over Shs116.2billion projected to finance the completion of the 36 projects in the education sector, Kulayigye said they have since received over Shs96billion and that they are still waiting for the release of over Shs20.2billion
“I can confirm that under the education sector projects, overall, we are more than 95% done,” he said.
Some of the completed projects in the Education and Sports sector include the construction of a four-kilometre wall around Mandela/Namboole National Stadium at a cost of over Shs3.8billion.
“Now the land for Mandela National Stadium has been secured because the encroachers were busy taking it. We almost lost a soldier to encroachers. We were also detailed to renovate the Stadium itself, most of the work has been completed at a cost of Shs94.4billion. We are at 92 per cent with this work,” Kulayigye said.
He added that the army has also successfully reconstructed classroom blocks in Wanyange Senior Secondary School in Jinja and Kololo Senior Secondary School in Kampala at Shs191.7million and Shs541.5million, respectively.
The completed projects according to Kulayigye include the construction of school dormitories, school fencing, latrine construction, construction and rehabilitation of schools, among others in the districts of Gomba, Iganga, Butambala, Hoima City, Soroti City, Wakiso district, Kampala City
In the districts such as Wakiso, Jinja, Soroti, Oyam, Kiboga, Amuria, Pader, Luweero, Kiruhura, Arua, Katakwi, Mbarara, Apac, Dokolo, Busia, Mayuge, Kaliro, Kyotera, Kisoro, the army has constructed or refurbished ventilated pit latrines (VIP), teachers houses and classroom blocks in various educational institutions.
Out of the 70 projects the military is supposed to undertake in the health sector, Kulayigye said 22 have been completed and 48 were ongoing. In this sector, out of the Shs65.8billion meant to execute the projects, the government has since released Shs48.2billion, with the outstanding of Shs17.5billion
Some of the projects under the Ministry of Health that the military was contracted to execute include remodelling and expanding the Jinja Referral Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Shs804.6m and the project completion is now at 100 per cent.
Rehabilitation of Busolwe General Hospital in Butaleja District at Shs5.9billion was at 98 per cent, while renovation of Kawolo General Hospital in Buikwe district at Shs3.3billion was at 100 per cent completion.
The other projects completed include construction of the liquid oxygen tank at National Medical Stores (NMS) at Kajjansi and another at Mulago National Referral Hospital, remodelling and expansion of the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Bombo General Military Hospital, among others.
“Under the Office of the Prime Minister, completed projects are six and three are ongoing making a total of nine,” Kulayigye said. Out of the over Shs10billion projected for the execution of the projects, the government has since released Shs9.8billion and the balance of over Shs189.6million pending release.
According to Kulayigye, out of the 159 projects the army is undertaking in the local governments, 91 have been completed, and 68 are ongoing. The government has since released Shs47.2billion out of the Shs98.9b projected to complete these projects. The balance of over Shs51.7b is yet to be released.
The completed projects in the districts of Kiruhura, Mbale, Nakaseke, Kitagwenda, Pallisa, Isingiro, Mayuge, Nansana Municipality, Kyankwanzi, Bukedea, Mitooma, Fort Portal City, Namutumba, Nebbi, Buhweju, Lugazi Municipality, Buikwe, Mpigi, Kazo and Kamuli mainly involved construction of staff houses, latrines and renovations at different health facilities.
Under the Ministry of ICT, the army had only one project which they have completed at a cost of Shs346million.
At the Civil Aviation Authority, completed projects are three, while four are ongoing- all totalling seven. In the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Judicial Service Commission (JSC) they had one project each. One project has also been completed under Kampala Archdiocese funded by the government.
The projects at CAA, Internal Affairs, JSC, Kampala Archdiocese cost at Shs59.8billion, 7.5billion, 11.1billion and 104million, respectively.
“We in the UPDF, we believe our job is to serve the country and our service ranges from security, national defence and the wellbeing of Ugandans as well as national development of the country,” Kulayigye said, adding “National defence, I need to emphasise, is not an end in itself, we defend for a purpose, national security is not for an enemy itself, we want to maintain security for a purpose which is national development.”
Kulayigye assured those who are questioning the UPDF ability to deliver the projects and those hell-bent at discrediting them as being proved wrong by the Force’s ability to deliver huge projects such as the new Entebbe International Airport terminal, within the timeframes.
Contractors in the private sector have in the past opposed involvement of the Army in civil construction work arguing that it starves the businesses of badly needed revenue and that UPDF would be cheaper because it is subsidized through various Government benefits.
A senior army officer, now retired, told The Infrastructure Magazine last year that civil engineering in fact has traditionally been a military discipline. He said fighters were traditionally trained to undertake construction works as part of their battle readiness. He argued at the time that some countries like United States of America, Egypt, China have advanced engineering brigades that compete and, in some cases, outperform the private engineering companies, in execution of complex and massive projects. The UPDF, he said, needed to develop big capacity to execute even bigger projects – both for government and other private sector developers.
Eng. Dr. Isaac Mutenyo, the chairperson of the Engineers’ Registration Board and the programme coordinator of Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Programme (USMID) said that the army and the private sector need to complement each other in delivering government construction projects.
“We understand that the UPDF certified engineers are still few to handle most of the projects which calls for support from the private sector,” he said.
However, according to Kulayigye, the army has about three thousand certified engineers in different fields able to manage any task that army gets assigned.
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