The Democratic Party has strongly opposed the shifting of the agriculture ministry offices from Entebbe to plot 5, Kyadondo road near the city centre arguing that government is wasting tax payers’ money.
Mathias Nsubuga, the party’s secretary general told reporters today at the party headquarters in Kampala that the ministry has been headquartered in Entebbe for so many years and there is no reason to rent out another space.
“They just want to waste tax payers’ money,” Nsubuga said. “Even the owner of the building (Legacy Towers) is not known. May be it is owned by some people in government.”
The said building is located on plot 5 Kyadondo road, a few metres away from the city centre and has five floors. It is alleged that government pays Shs 50.5million per floor and Shs 256million for all the five floors a month.
“This is a lot of money. It should go to the needy sectors like education, health, infrastructure etc..,” Nsubuga added.
The party demands that the owner of the building be exposed to ensure that there no corruption in the matter. “KCCA (Kampala Capital City Authority) says they don’t know the owner. How can such a building be in the city without a certificate of occupation?” Nsubuga asked. “We need to know.”
However, James Collins Dombo, the undersecretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Industry was quoted in Daily monitor saying that the issue of shifting the ministry dates back to 1993 and was captured in both the national development plan and agriculture sector development strategy and investment plan of 2010 to 2015.
“The Ministry wanted to be more efficient to coordinate all key stakeholders like sister ministries, Parliament and President without wasting time to trek from Entebbe to Kampala when any important issue comes up,” Dombo was quoted as saying.
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