MINISTRY of Works officials were yesterday grilled over the diversion of CHOGM funds to construct additional roads leading to private residences.
According to documents presented to the public accounts committee, five roads were added on the list without the knowledge of the permanent secretary, Charles Muganzi.
“Things were hidden under different names, Correspondents were never copied to me and directives were being made after CHOGM. How would I have known?” the seemingly angry Muganzi asked.
The extra works were reportedly done under the directives of works miniters John Nasasira and John Byabagambi.
The directives were executed by chief engineer Chris Bagonza, who is currently on interdiction. Others who helped in the execution of the works engineers were William Musumba, Obyero Mugisa and Kaye Mukasa.
During the meeting, the members discovered that the unapproved extra works led to the cost of CHOGM roads shooting from sh75b to sh96b, representing a 29% increase.
Most of the directives for the works were done through internal memos, which Muganzi said he had never seen.
When he was pressed further, Muganzi insisted: “I don’t know about the works. I only saw them at the time of requesting for payments. They claimed they were part of CHOGM.
Scrutinising the documents, the committee, chaired by Nandala Mafabi (FDC), discovered that most of the works were done in 2008, months after CHOGM. Additional works were done on Hill Lane Road in Kitoro and Entebbe.
