By Mulengera Reporters
The mood was jubilant and two senior Ministers were in attendance. This was earlier today Thursday 18th July at the Clement Hill Road site where the much-awaited ground breaking for the IG head offices took place.
The two Ministers were Simon Lokodo (political leader for all anti-corruption agencies) and Matia Kasaija (Finance) who regretted the ground breaking event delayed for more than two years because of endless petitions whistle blowers kept presenting to PPDA Authority alleging procurement irregularities.
Saying Thursday should ideally have been inauguration day for the new building, Kasaija said the emotional stress and inconveniences the IGG Irene Mulyagonja and her team suffered makes more obvious the need for the PPDA Act to be quickly amended to reduce on the length of time available for the administrative reviews and complaints to be heard and disposed of.
For the IGG Lady Irene Mulyagonja, this was a day to congratulate IG Secretary Rose Kafeero and her predecessor Waiswa Bageya who suffered much of the adversity by virtue of being the accounting officers directly concerned with supervising the procurement process.
Whereas Kafeero suffered ridicule including being accused of bias in major newspaper articles, Bageya (Mulyagonja recalled) even had to be caged by police at some point after whistle blowers (fearing their favored bidders losing out) made wild graft allegations against him.
BAD FOR AGA KHAN
But it was Kasaija and Lokodo that directly drove the point home in relation to the headline we have chosen for this story. While praising Mulyagonja and team for their resilience not to give up that easily, Lokodo bragged about the fact that Shs2.5bn would annually be saved in office rent the IG has been paying to occupy a few floors on Aga Khan’s IPS building.
Kasaija went as far as saying he wouldn’t apologize to the IPS Building owner whose empire won’t only register diminished business because of lost rental revenue but also plenty of deals in hosting conferences. Why? The IG new building will have plenty of state-of-the art conference facilities for use by both the IG and other government MDAs.
Kasaija said it would be mandatory for all government MDAs to make use of this swanky government facility not only because its new but largely because it will deliberately be much cheaper than Serena.
He said besides being expensive and costly to the tax payer, the IPS building wasn’t appropriate for keeping sensitive government secrets similar to what the IG has in its possession. That its crowded and the environment thereon is not corporate enough to house a sensitive 21st century government institution like the IG.
Subsequently speaking to reporters, Mulyagonja corroborated Kasaija’s utterances saying indeed they tolerated lots of inconveniences while operating at IPS. She said for instance guests coming for business in other offices had inevitably to be subjected to lots of security checks similar to what all visitors to the IG go through on a daily basis.
She said at the new building, there will be better and more spacious corporate facilities enabling the IG staff to conduct sensitive meetings and other business. She said there will be cafeteria facilities enabling staff to eat from within as opposed to IPS where one has to go out to find meals.
Lots of ICT facilities will be part of the extras on the new building that will also have holding cells for suspects being prosecuted by the IGG in Anti-Corruption Court. She said previously, because of limited space, they have had to plead with police stations like CPS to hold the suspects on their way to court. She says there will also be space for interrogation and recording of statements from the new building.
Costing Shs70bn, the new structure will be completed within 3 years and its 100% GoU funding, something Kasaija was very proud of. Lokodo thanked Kasaija for using his leverage as finance minister to ensure anti-corruption agencies get their own headquarters and graduate from rented premises.
Whereas the Auditor General already operates in their own premises, the PPDA one is nearing completion and now the IG one has gotten underway. Lokodo begged more are facilitated to follow suit. Kasaija said that was the plan and expressed readiness to allocate the rest of the surrounding land to other anti-graft agencies.
Kasaija, who told IG staff it was okay to cut deals and make money provided this is legitimate money-making, said he was feeling embarrassed that this IG headquarter had been envisaged to be delivered during the NDP II period and said the thinking process began 10 years ago only to be frustrated by endless procurement procedures, petitions and counter-petitions.
The ground-breaking ceremony was attended by many other dignitaries including Lt. Col Edith Nakalema and Deputy PSST Patrick Ochailap.
(For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
