Budyebo County MP Engineer Berunado Ssebbugga-Kimeze raised concerns over a total of 120 missing railway wagons comprising 113 Uganda Railways Corporation wagons and 281 Kenya Railways wagons—valued at over UGX 220 billion.
His concern was raised during a meeting between the committee of physical infrastructure and Uganda Railways Corporation led by their managing Benon Kajuna.
Eng. Berunado how a wagon that is bigger than a bus disappear and it’s not notice. He also expressed concern regarding the procurement processes of Uganda Railways Corporation that use sourcing instead of using procurement which eliminate potential contractors who offer services at cheaper price.
‘’A wagon is a big thing, bigger than a bus. How can something bigger than a bus just disappear? Not one, not two, but 113’’. ‘’And as if that is not enough, we lost 281 wagons belonging to Kenya Railways. This puts Uganda into disrepute and could cause us a diplomatic problem,” Ssebbugga-Kimeze said.
During the meeting, Hon. Ssebbugga questioned URC over its failure to dispose of obsolete assets, saying the delay had denied the corporation an estimated Shs4.8 billion in revenue from dilapidated assets in Uganda and Tanzania.
His concerns forced the committee led by Mwiine Mpaka to put Uganda Railways Corporation officials under scrutiny.
The committee directed URC officials to provide documentary evidence showing steps taken to recover the missing wagons.
Mpaka warned that failure to provide the documents would result in action against the officials.
“Documented evidence of steps you have taken to recover these wagons. Failure to do so, those who have introduced themselves, the Head of Security, the Engineer and the Executive Director, we are going to arrest you immediately,” Mpaka said.
The committee suspended the session to allow officials retrieve the required documents, after which Kajuna recorded a statement with Parliament Police since they could not provide details of the missing wagons.