By Mulengera Reporters
On Thursday, the Finance Minister Henry Musasizi drove to Entebbe where he presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the new Statistics House, a project which Roko Construction, a Ugandan company, has been contracted to undertake for and on behalf of the Government of Uganda.
The new structure will facilitate the much-needed infrastructural expansion to enable the Bureau to enhance on its capacity to deepen automation while carrying out data production, processing, innovation and dissemination. This is consistent with the Bureau’s top leadership’s determination to deliver quality official statistics to facilitate evidence-based decision making and policy formulation for Uganda’s long term nation development.
In his speech, which was preceded by that of UBOS Executive Director Dr. Chris Mukiza and of the Governing Board Chairman Dr. Albert Byamugisha, Musasizi praised the Bureau for making Uganda proud over the promptness and efficiency with which the 2024 digital population & housing census (the first of its kind in Uganda) was conducted.
Musasizi also saluted his cabinet colleague Amos Lugolobi and the UBOS top management for successfully working towards elimination of intrigue and infighting which had become the order of the day at UBOS as of five years ago. He celebrated the fact that there is currently harmony and cohesion among the Bureau’s staff members than was the case five years ago.
He also asserted that high level decision-making in government today is based on high quality and accurate official statistics all of which has been made possible by the effective leadership currently at UBOS. Musasizi said he was proud of being the Minister under whose Ministry of Finance such a highly efficient MDA falls.
Musasizi then narrated the story of Roko Construction, a company in whose success, viability and sustainability he said the GoU is very much interested because this is in line with its local content and BuBu policy which prioritizes the strengthening of capacity among the local firms.
He said this is the reason why the GoU intervened to resuscitate the same a few years ago when it became apparent that the company was financially struggling. With resuscitation from government, the company was rescued through a very transparent process which involved Parliament; which is why and how Uganda’s oldest construction firm has remained a going concern up to this day.
Musasizi reminisced how Cabinet went ahead to direct that all government MDAs prioritize giving work and jobs to Roko Construction whenever they have construction works to undertake. That this is so because the government wants to increase the company’s viability and sustainability so that it facilitates construction knowledge transfer while creating jobs for Ugandan youths.
The Minister said he was pleased in a unique way to find that the UBOS top management, led by Dr. Chris N Mukiza, had taken that cabinet directive very seriously by giving the Entebbe multi-billion new Statistics House construction job to Roko.
He said that by being exemplary on that issue, Mukiza had met the President’s expectations and implored Roko to do a good job and deliver the completion of the same within scheduled time, as opposed to betraying that trust. He promised to brief the President about the extent to which the UBOS top management had complied with his cabinet directive on the prioritization of Roko while giving out construction works.
Musasizi casually observed that this strict and continued obedience to such cabinet-level directives could ultimately secure Dr. Chris Mukiza’s retention as the UBOS big man, through subsequent contract renewal when his current employment contract expires. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
