Transparency has been conceived by different people and it’s believed to be detrimental to stakeholders’ participation in the infrastructure sector in Uganda. The essence of disclosing information on public infrastructure projects has been raising some eyebrows. Significantly, this is in breach of the Access to Information Act which was enacted by the government of Uganda in 2005.
Public infrastructure projects are public asset which all citizens should be entitled to access the information about such projects, so that citizens and other stakeholders can monitor the implementation, inform authorities on any concern, to be address timely. In this Article, we present the infrastructure transparency dilemma regarding the “Super International specialized hospital
Lubowa”. The construction the health facility started way back in 2019 and it worth 1.4 trillion, the contract was awarded to Finasi company Limited an Italian contractor.
The construction was expected to be completed in June 2021 and but since then, the construction has remained at the under-ground foundation and yet government through Parliament appropriating huge amount of fund for the project. Due to unavoidable circumstances, the Daily monitor of 29th Feb 2024 quoted the health minister saying that the infrastructure project completion dates have extended up to December 2024 having had two times extension earlier and this an issue which will lead to time and cost overruns which eventually compromises on the quality of infrastructure.
CoST Uganda promote transparency in delivery of infrastructure projects in Uganda, delays in project delivery like in Lubowa health facility affect the aspiration and there was no information available about the project which the assurance team could use to analyse the status of transparency, citizen participation, disclosure level and legal environment. Even though, the Assurance report recommended that the Ministry of Health should ensure the project take off to completion to enhance access to quality health services to Ugandan.
The infrastructure transparency dilemma is amplified by lots of secrecy posed by the implementers to some extend by supervising entity. In the case of Super International specialized hospital in Lubowa, since 2019 parliamentarians are being stopped from visiting the site the project by police and a case in point was in July, 2019 in which the current deputy Speaker of Parliament who was then the Member of Parliament for Ruhinda North and on 28th February, 2024 the lead of Opposition and other shadow ministers were blocked by the police from visiting the project site to establish the status quo and that leaves a lot be desired as a country.
Despite, stakeholders’ engagements, and concern about the status of implementation of the project, little has been done about the completion of the health facility and this has delayed the usage of the facility by the citizens and indirectly contributing to increased cost health services in Uganda as people who should have got services in this facility are compelled to go abroad.
We appeal to government to expedite the completion of Super Specialized hospital in Lubowa to boost health service in Uganda and reduce financial outflow in search of health services abroad by Ugandans.
