Pallisa- The Inspector General of Government (IGG) has started an investigation in Pallisa District over alleged conflict of interest by the Community Project Management Committee (CPMC) and the contracts committee.

The controversy stems from the award of the construction of Oladoto health centre II, under the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund [Nusaf II] programme at a contract sum of Shs79 million to three different contractors.

Six companies which included Victor contractors, Pallisa Cobs contractors, Aso Investment [U] Ltd, Kasolwa engineering, Samo General Enterprise and Katogo farmers tendered in their applications.

It’s alleged that during the evaluation exercise on September 13, CPMC awarded the tender to Aso Investment at Shs74.3m but one of the firms, Kasolwa Engineering, lodged a petition saying Aso Investment had no certificate of completion from the previous contracts.

The chief administrative officer, Mr Issa Mbooge, in his September 17 letter to CPMC, halted the award until all issues are harmonised.

It’s reported that Mr Robert Omunuku, the chairperson CPMC had objected to signing minutes despite pressure to have the tender awarded to Samo General Enterprise as directed by the CAO in an October 11 letter.

This resulted in the CAO directing that a new chairperson CPMC for the same project be elected in an October 24 letter.

A team of officials from the IGG office, headed by Mr Ojambo Nanzige, launched the investigations on October 28, after Mr Omunuku notified them. They recommended that proper evaluation be followed in accordance to Nusaf guidelines.

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