KAMPALA – The National Water & Sewerage Corporation has again dismissed a fresh wave of old allegations of impropriety against the institution’s top managers as “blackmail”.
The regurgitated allegations of impropriety at the government water utility company targeting the Managing Director Dr. Silver Mugisha have been circulated, purporting to brief the President of the goings on at the institution, including finger pointing of procurement projects that have since been even concluded to satisfaction.
“All this is old stuff that has been handled with conclusive recommendations as far as I know,” said Sam Apedel, the NWSC Senior Public Relations Manager, adding that all all previous investigations and audits cleared the MD, and the institution’s processes.
The allegations, also previously investigated by different accountability institutions including the NWSC Board cleared Dr. Mugisha and the institution’s processes, including the procurement arrangements which were flagged robust.
In fact the board recently approved the roll out of the new Corporate Plan 2021-2024, anchored on the country’s strategic plans; the NDPIII, Government Manifesto, Vision 2040 which will also focus on the strategic priority areas of; Industrialisation, Infrastructure Development, Skilling and Work Force Development, Private Sector Involvement and Organisational Health Sustainability.
Investigations indicate that most of these allegations including suggestions of impropriety in procurement of NWSC training centres in Northern and Western Uganda, and other projects are “being sponsored to serve certain political interests”.
Dr. Mugisha, speaking to the media on Monday September 6, said that whoever is raising allegations about his leadership is doing it in bad faith.
(PHOTO/File).
“In the last seven years (2014-2021), we increased customer connections from 270,000 to 800,000; the water network has increased from 6500kms to 21,000kms; surplus for capital investments has increased from UGX 30Bn to UGX 109Bn; the number of people served by piped water from 4million to 15million,” he said adding that “clearly, it was not a performance concern” but a calculated campaign to dislodge him as NWSC MD.
“We have even got information that some people have gone with money to some accountability agencies with an aim of causing problem to the MD. At NWSC, we don’t mind well-intentioned investigations because we are very sure that we do our work in a correct way. All previous investigations and audits at NWSC have vindicated us,” he said.
Under Dr. Mugisha’s helm, the NWSC’s annual turnover has in the last 7 years increased from Shs 150Bn to Ushs 460Bn; with the number of people served by piped water rising from 4million to 15million people, a stellar performance by any standards.
Our reliable sources have indicated that allegations at NWSC are a result of internal work and external collaboration. Some have political motivations and the internal handwork is because of the strict performance and accountability system that Dr Mugisha has instituted during his leadership. Other forces come from a system of procurement/business lobbyists that have found it hard to compromise Dr Mugisha, who is obsessed with “I am not part of procurement evaluations” response.
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