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Municipal Leaders posing for a photo shoot
By Augustine Olule
A section of Moroto Municipal councilors have been left in shock after learning that the fencing of the mayor’s garden cost up to sh48m.
The councilors and other stakeholders within the Municipality have called upon the Municipal auditors to carry out an audit of how the sh48m was used in fencing the Mayors gardens, citing misuse of public funds by the engineer.
Speaking during the handover of the first phase of the works done at the site, John Juston Napokol, the chairperson works and social services committee for Moroto Municipal council, said the work done is not worth the sh48m allocated for it.
“The wire being used for fencing is cheap, the site is small but the money allocated is big,” Napokol decried.
Justine Tuko, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner of Moroto, also wondered how the small Moroto Mayor’s gardens can take sh48m for fencing alone.
According to Tuko the barbed wire being used for fencing the gardens is cheap and therefore can not cost this much money.
He urged leaders to always love their work and show transparency while in government offices.
Municipal leaders and Councilors outside the Mayor’s garden
Tuko added that shoddy works are very common in Moroto district because people who are always given the contracts tend to be profit oriented other than doing better works.
Meanwhile Muhamed Ismael, the Mayor of Moroto Municipality, said the major aim of fencing the land was to protect it from the land grabbers who had started encroaching on the land.
He also tasked the auditors to quickly give a report on how the sh48m was used in the fencing of the gardens.
However, Emmanuel Patrick Odongo, the Assistant Engineering officer who was also the Contract manager insisted that the sh48m was properly used to serve the purpose it was meant for.
He added that the councilors are acting ignorantly as if they are not aware of the everyday soaring prices of most construction materials.
The said gardens measures two acres and approximately 300 meters of barbed wires were used for the perimeter fence.
Part of the funds were also used to install a main gate, an emergency gate, angle bars and the concrete works.
