Erute county legislator Jonathan Odur, and Sports State Minister Peter Ogwang on Friday faced off as the latter presented a detailed report on the works update at Mandela National Stadium (Namboole).
Minister Ogwang who had yesterday been directed by the House Speaker Anita Among, to without fail appear before his fellow Parliamentarians and present the report on works and accountability of the Shs97b that was released to help in renovation of the stadium.
But no sooner had he finished presenting the report, than Mr Odur attacked him doubting the authenticity of the report.
“I usually want to take Ministers very seriously, by Minister Ogwanga is one that I find extreme difficulty in accepting his statement and this is the true reflection of the state of affairs in the sports sub-sector,” he said
Adding, “He promised three times in 2023 that Namboole would be ready and about twice in 2024 and that hasn’t come to pass. Minister Ogwanga went to Lira and purported to present and Egyptian contractor to construct Aki-Bua Stadium and he told the people of Lango that works will begin in one week, it is now approaching 2-3months and there is nobody completely on the ground,”
Immediately, Ogwanga hit back saying that the MP is not fair.
““It is very unfortunate that he [Jonathan Odur] has come to submit on falsehood about my visit in Lira, that I made a statement in Lira that Aki-Bua statement would be constructed within one week, is he in order to allege falsehoods that I made such statements while in Lira.” Ogwang said.
Odur in his questioning said that the Minster announced May 25 as the new date when works at Namboole will be completed, saying the Minister has earlier given 5 different dates that have all not been honoured.
In response Ogwang said, “My senior Minister has written three letters right from December 2023 that is what we have as far as Namboole is concerned. Once the Minister of Education receives the requisite funding, our priority shall be to work on areas that were highlighted as a necessity during the recent CAF inspections which were funded and invited by the Ministry of Education and Sports so that we comply with the requirements to host the upcoming world cup qualifiers in June 2024, African Championship,” said Minister.
He added that the renovation works at Mandela National Stadium has taken a new twist after Parliament was informed CAF refused to approval works due to the failure by Gov’t to remove Pioneer Buses from Namboole’s parking lot, despite the expiry of their 5years lease, thus stalling UPDF’s efforts to carry out markings on the parking premises as per CAF requirements.
“One of the issues raised in the CAF report was us putting signage on what the parking will be within the stadium, we must demarcate a parking space for our fans. I have directed the contractor to help me officially remove the buses out of the stadium because to me, I need the stadium without any hinderance.
Uganda Land Commission, he said did lease out the parking of Namboole Stadium. We will do whatever it takes because it is a requirement by CAF to have those buses out of the stadium before they approve the final game to be played in Namboole, so we will have them out of Namboole.
The Speaker later directed as asked Amos Lugoloobi, Minister of State for Planning to trigger the release of the remaining Shs17.763Bn balance for the renovations works of Mandela National Stadium, after it was revealed that the Ministry of Finance ignored all the three letters written by First Lady & Minister of Education & Sports, Janet Kataha to have all the Shs97.9bn released to complete the project.
Her directive followed a revelation by Ogwang, who said that the works at Namboole stadium were contracted to UPDF’s Engineering brigade at Shs97.9Bn, but so far, Shs80.136Bn has been released, leaving an outstanding balance of Shs17.6Bn and the shortfall has left the Contractor grappling with challenges to complete the works, yet letters from the First Lady have all funds released have also been ignored since December 2023 by Ministry of Finance.
“We are giving you one hour to first go and trigger then you come back for your ministerial statement so that by the time we leave here, we know we have evidence of the trigger. What we want is the money and evidence of the trigger. The First Lady writes to you one letter, second letter and third letter what if I write, will you ever read it if you can’t respond to what the First Lady has written to you. I don’t even want to talk about accountability now, first we want the Shs17Bn, then we will put a forensic audit,” she said.
