70 Percent Citizens Not Involved in Infrastructure Projects-Study

70 percent of Ugandans have expressed concern over inadequate consultations, especially on public infrastructure projects.

Citizens say while they expect to be informed about the government infrastructure projects coming up in their areas, they are not consulted at all. 

This is according to a study on the public perceptions of infrastructure works in the country.

The study  was conducted by CoST Uganda National Survey exercise.  CoST is an Infrastructure Transparency Initiative under Uganda Chapter of Multi-Stakeholder Group –MSG that aims at promoting transparency by disclosing data from public infrastructure investment.   

It was commissioned in October 2018 and concluded in April 2019 in the districts of Kampala, Wakiso, Jinja and Gulu. 

The public also contend that public works often disrupt businesses and in some cases leads to destruction of property coupled with delayed or no compensation. 

The survey according to Olive Kabatwairwe the CoST Uganda Programme Coordinator was intended to measure citizens’ levels of satisfaction on the way public infrastructure works in Uganda are delivered. 

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76 per cent of those interviewed in Northern Uganda said they were not satisfied at all about the level of participation in public projects such as road construction.

Meanwhile, 67% in Eastern Uganda said they were not satisfied at all while those unsatisfied in Central Uganda accounted to 70%. 

Majority citizens said they would want to be involved at project identification, project implementation and preparation/design. 

According to the survey, citizens complained about inadequate display of basic project information on sites, as well as caution messages. 

While communities held expectations that they would be employed on infrastructure projects, they expressed lack of satisfactory knowledge as a limitation to the opportunities the projects would offer.

Engineer Nathan Byanyima, the Chairperson CoST Uganda says government should develop a policy to ensure that information on all procurement especially for public infrastructure projects is made public and the citizens involved at all levels. 

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According to Byanyima, besides lack of information, citizens are less concerned about the projects being implemented in their area.

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He adds that once citizens are not involved, cases of shoddy works will remain rampant.

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