By John V Sserwaniko
For some years now, PPDA has annually been spending close to Shs600m in rental fees for the two floors (4th & 5th) that they occupy at UEDCL Tower in Nakasero. Eng Micheal Odongo’s Uganda Road Fund (URF) spends equally as much annually on rent at Twed Building opposite Fairway hotel. This hemorrhaging of resources will soon end following a cost-saving move PPDA Executive Director Benson Turamye successfully proposed to equally innovative Eng Odongo. The two top executives agreed to collaboratively overcome their common challenge of having to spend too much money on rent off their already inadequate budget allocation. PSST Keith Muhakanizi acted equally prudently by prioritizing to avail cash for the construction of a 10 floor office building that the two entities will share for their office requirements.
“We are set and this is something we are going to accomplish in a timely manner because the Ministry of Finance has already availed us with the money,” PPDA told this news website Friday at his office. The office complex, whose construction process is already underway, will cost Shs51bn. According to Moses Ojambo (the PPDA Director for Capacity Building & Advisory Services), Senayi Brothers has been contracted to do the construction which must be completed in 3 years’ time. This means the two entities, that are equally contributing to the cost, will be moving in latest 2021. In an interview with this website, Ojambo explained that the building will have a total of 10 floors; three of which will comprise parking space for the two entities’ staffers and the rest of the space will meet their office needs. The plot of land, measuring 0.6hectares, belongs to PPDA having bought it from a certain NGO sometime back. Gratefully it’s located right opposite the UEDCL Tower were PPDA currently rents. It will be a matter of crossing the road from one tall building to another when the new office complex is finally completed.
The Senayi Brothers’ firm is famous for doing quality works for clients like the Parliament of Uganda, Abacus Pharmaceuticals just to mention a few. At UEDCL Tower, PPDA has annually been paying not less than Shs250m per floor and they are using 2.5 floors currently. Moving in the new more spacious building will no doubt enable the already understaffed PPDA to operate more efficiently and make more meaningful contribution to service delivery in this country. Ojambo explains that besides the headquarters in Kampala, PPDA has two regional offices in Mbarara for western region and Gulu for the north. Mbale will soon be opening to cater for the eastern region.
According to the Auditor General John Muwanga in his numerous annual reports, rent is one area on which government MDAs spend lots of money. Matia Kasaija, the finance minister, has in the long term been proposing overcoming this problem by establishing the government campus at Bwebajja were all government MDAs will be required to operate from. Government believes that the Bwebajja move will decongest Kampala as much of the human and vehicle traffic is associated to people coming to transact business at the different government Ministries, Departments & Agencies that are currently situated in Kampala. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
