Rural electrification contractors faulted over failure to implement terms of contract

The chairperson of Parliament’s Natural Resources committee, Dr. Keefa Kiwanuka, has noted that although there is a marked increase in the number of homesteads connected to the electricity in rural areas, there still remain some outstanding issues that need to be quickly dealt with.

Kiwanuka made the remarks while on an assessment visit of electrification projects in the Kiboga area.

"In some places, you will find that people in the east were connected and people in the west were not yet in they are same town probably separated by the road ,so we are asking ourselves what is the cause of this?" he queried.

Kiwanuka raised a concern that some of the materials used in the project were not meeting technical specification.

"In some places, they are supposed to use cables for straining the wires that we use. The best cable they are supposed to use is 100 mm but in some places they have used cables which are just 50mm. If you use a cable which is less than specified 100mm, there is a risk to the project,"he said.

The project manager for Rural Electrification Agencies(REA), Charles Lutwama, responded to the concern which he promised to link up with the contractors.

"Leaving out the areas which were not connected was not deliberate ,it was because of money, so we thought we would phase the project.There were claims that the contractors is using small conductors against what was approved by us but they were asked to stick on the contract and they are going to fix those lines,"he said.

The Rural Electrification Agency runs a number of project intended to expand electricity grid by connecting different subcounties and small urban centres.