By Nathan Eyagu
SOROTI
The acting Soroti City Engineer yesterday 18th November 2021 found it very hard answering questions raised by Public Accounts Committee MPs regarding the uninstalled street lights.
The Committee that was led by Hon. Ojara Martine Mapenduzi was in Soroti City on a follow up on funds spent on different USMID projects for the financial year 2018/2021.
Robert Kaizu, who is a Civil Engineer by training was asked to explain the value for money aspect spent on the installation of 105 street lights where about Shs609m was spent on buying the lights.
Kaizu in response said the procured lights turned out not to be functioning as expected because they were not as bright as those that use electricity.
“The quality of the solar lights throughout the country is not appealing as I have been in different towns, the intensity is not satisfying, it’s been a concern and observed with the consultant and contractor who advised us to look at manufacture and specifications and we have endured that before more lights are installed, we test about 3 to 4 lights then see how they work before more are delivered,” he explained.
“Chair, we have 105 lights installed, the light intensity is not good, in functionality, we have also had some lights vandalized by some people, we informed the authorities responsible and we don’t have any team trained for the maintenance of the lights,” he added.
The Engineer’s explanation did not go down well with the Committee members.
The engineer was only assisted by the Town Clerk who explained to the committee that the engineer was an acting engineer who is a civil engineer and has no knowledge about electrical engineering.
“We are here to preform our duties, today we are looking at the USMID projects and the Uganda road fund, the technical team of the city presented what we expected and we shall make a follow up on that because funds meant to help citizens should be used well in an accountable way,” Mapenduzi said.
“The engineer has confirmed to us that the lights are not working well, some have been vandalized, a number of the lights are down and they have no team responsible for the maintenance, we shall come back with a report to see what’s to be done,” Mapenduzi added.
He later gave the City authorities some time to solve the problem promising a deterrent action if the anomalies are not rectified.
“The engineer is a civil engineer not an electrical engineer and he is only acting, people with required knowledge should be employed so that they do that work well,” he added.
The MPs later paid visit around different USMID roads, street lights and the city yard.
