Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has given Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) four weeks to provide a comprehensive report on all its contractors.
The Committee which is chaired by Hon. Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri) on Thursday 20th October 2016, instructed UNRA to carry out due diligence with all their contractors and provide a comprehensive report to the committee.
UNRA paid Ushs 21.9 billion to an account under the name of China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group Uganda Ltd yet they had signed a contract with China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group Company Ltd, a China-based company. The money was meant to facilitate the upgrade of the Kanoni-Sembabule-Villa Maria road.
The Executive Director, Allen Kagina admitted that UNRA made the payment erroneously.
“I apologise for previously misleading the Committee, but we made the payment to an account of a company that was not actually contracted to do the work,” Kagina said.
In the investigation, it was further revealed that China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group (Uganda) Ltd is owned by Sun Yang Jun and Zhao Jun yet China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group Company Ltd is state-owned.
Katuntu advised UNRA to exert more caution when entering such agreements.
“You need to always cross-check documentation and do enough due diligence to make sure that you are entering an agreement and paying the right person,” Katuntu said.
He added that payment had to be rectified and a comprehensive report made and provided to the committee.
However, the UNRA acting legal director, Mary Kutesa said that UNRA had stopped payments to China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group (Uganda) Ltd since it was not the company that UNRA signed the contract with.
