Kampala

The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Irene Mulyagonja, yesterday dismissed claims by the developers of the Nakawa-Naguru housing estates that she slapped a ban on any further works on the project.

Justice Mulyagonja told the Daily Monitor yesterday that she only stopped the transfer of land from the investor to any other willing buyer after it was alleged that the developers, OpecPrime Properties had hatched plans to sell it off.

The IGG says...

“We have never stopped them from proceeding with construction,” she said. “We only issued orders of not transferring the land to another person because we had received a complaint from a whistleblower early this year that they wanted to sell and nothing else, so let them not lie to anyone,” Ms Mulyagonja said.

The IGG added that they were later “told by President Museveni” not to frustrate the project and also found out later that the land already has a caveat by government so it cannot be resold unless there are changes in agreements.

The contractor says...

The chief operating officer for OpecPrime, Mohammed Mulindwa, however, insists that “they are not moving on ground” on orders of the IGG. “We cannot move any further before she writes to us contradicting the first orders she gave to us,” Mr Mulindwa said. He added: “People allege so many things that we are trying to sell the land but that is all nonsense. Actually the President told her not to interfere in our work but she must write.”

About 1,750 sitting tenants were evicted between 2007 and 2011 to pave way for the re-development of the dilapidated structures built in the 1950s.

The architectural design for the Shs4 trillion satellite city, which will house a five-star hotel, a referral hospital, schools, a shopping mall and more than 1,747 flats, was rolled out in 2012 but the developers have all along blamed the stalled work on the heavy government bureaucracy involving consultations and kickbacks.

President Museveni last year in October commissioned the project. However, no meaningful work has commenced on the ground since.

OpecPrime Properties received about 160 acres of land for the project in 2006 to be financed by the Irish-London-based Comer Group International. The two are said to have contractual ownership for the development for a period of 30 years, and have already secured government validation.

Mr Mulindwa also stated that they have engaged their “immediate clients”, the Ministry of Local Government, to harmonise complaints by the sitting tenants.