By Mulengera Reporters
Following the rationalization of both Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and Uganda Road Fund (URF), the Ministry of Works & Transport is going to become very powerful once again.
A new department charged with national roads & bridges is going to be created at the Port Bell Road-based Ministry and it will be headed by a Commissioner who will most likely have to be one of the engineers working under Allen Kagina at the current Nakawa-based UNRA. The new department, which will inherit all the mandate that has been UNRA and URF’s while being under the direct supervision of the Permanent Secretary, will most likely be headquartered at the current URF’s head offices in Nakasero.
This is a twin tower building (new and glittering) that was recently constructed jointly by URF and PPDA. It has enough physical space to accommodate a significant fraction of the roughly 600 UNRA employees who are going to be retained under the rationalised situation. UNRA currently has over 1,500 employees and the government has committed to retain only 600 who will be deployed in the new department under the restructured Ministry of Works & Transport.
POWERFUL PS:
But above all this will be a super powerful Permanent Secretary for the restructured new Ministry of Works. The current PS at Port Bell is old man Waisswa Bageya whose tenure is ending in a few months time. If he is lucky, he will be recycled to a less significant docket that doesn’t require much energy so that a vacancy is created at Works where the President wants to see someone more vibrant than Bageya, a veteran PS, has been.
Mulengera News has impeccably established that Eng Samson Bagonza, who until not very long ago was UNRA Board member and chief engineer at the Works Ministry, is already being vetted for that powerful role of PS at the restructured Works Ministry.
Bagonza is a Mukonjo from Kasese and has the relevant connections. He is a blue-eyed boy of Gen Salim Saleh, the President’s brother, who pioneered the whole rationalization of government idea. Gen Salel closely worked with advisors like Ramathan Goobi (then an economics professor at Mubs), Prof Eria Hisali of Makerere CoBAMs College and the highly influenctial Local Government Ministry Permanent Secretary Ben Kumumanya among others.
Eng Bagonza was, behind the scenes, among those deeply knowledgeable insiders the President’s brother frequently consulted about the need and the wisdom to rationalize UNRA. Bagonza is perceived by kingmaker Gen Saleh as vastly knowledgeable about the Works and Transport sector which is why he is being favored for the role of pioneer Permanent Secretary at the restructured Works Ministry.
He is also a cadre who can’t easily be cowed, intimidated or even duped by powerful cartels seeking road construction and maintenance deals at the newly restructured Ministry of Works & Transport.
The President and Gen Salim Saleh are also convinced that the stinking rich Eng Bagonza, currently enjoying his semi-retirement from his Naguru residence, is sufficiently wealthy and won’t be seeking to use the position of PS at the restructured Ministry to work towards unjust enrichment. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at [email protected]).
