The committee on Commissions Statutory Authority and State Enterprises (COSASE) has directed that leases on Uganda Railway Corporation (URC) land should be cancelled.
Presenting the report of the committee, the chairperson, Joel Ssenyonyi said that over time, different district land boards in Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Gulu, Nwoya, and Uganda Land Commission have created illegal leases on URC land.
"AII illegal leases on URC land should be canceled by the issuing authorities. The officers in the district land boards involved in issuing the illegal leases should be held responsible and URC should come up with clear mechanisms on how to lease its land so that the appropriate value can be ascertained,” he said
He explained several requests by URC to these land boards to cancel the said illegal leases have been futile and this has made it difficult for URC to recover its land.
Ssenyonyi said that URC has written to the bodies and the letters have not been responded to, while some of them have been added as parties to litigation cases involving URC.
On the newly procured locomotives, the committee found out that the four locomotives purchased in 2021 for Shs shs48 billion have been parked in the workshop with no work.
“The URC workers interfaced with the committee and revealed that the locomotives were imported without knowing that they were too long for the triangles and not able to turn,” Ssenyonyi’s report read in part.
The committee also found out that there were irregularities in the procurement process of the locomotives with older locomotives purchased at higher costs and yet a lesser amount could have bought new ones.
"After carrying out a market survey, a URC select committee recommended that the company purchases locomotives which are six years old at Shs 36 billion. However, locomotives which were eight years old costing Shs 48 billion were procured," Ssenyonyi said.
The committee recommended that the Ministry of Works and Transport should take responsibility for failure to follow government policy on the procurement of equipment.
They also want the management of URC that was involved in the procurement held responsible for flouting procurement regulations and the unplanned costs incurred on modifications of railway triangles in Jinja and Tororo and the U-turn in Kampala.