The Prime Minister of Uganda, Ms Robinah Nabbanja Akiiki, has advised and encouraged government ministries, agencies and departments to invest in capital development so as to save the government from spending colossal sums of money on rent.
Commissioning a storeyed building jointly constructed by thePublic Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) and the Uganda Road Fund (URF) yesterday (Thursday) afternoon in Kampala, the premier noted that joint ventures assist in investing the money that would be spent on rent into development projects.
The joint construction of the Shs57.431b building was done much easily due to pooling financial resources which would have been more overstretching if the project was undertaken by an entity per se.
In the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the PPDA and URF, it was agreed that the two government entities share office premises of the multibillion building that was constructed at Nakasero in Kampala.
This kind of arrangement saw Ms Nabbanja advise government ministries, agencies and departments to borrow a leaf from PPDA and URF to reduce government expenditure on rent and inject the money in other ventures for improved services.
Speaking at the ceremony, State Minister for Finance, Mr Amos Lugolobi, who represented the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Mr Matia Kasaija, also said such collaborative efforts should be demonstrated by other similar public entities.
He said the government will use the same approach in its other different entities adding that the finance ministry is committed to providing direction to the government on public procurement.
The minister continued that some loans have not performed well due to fights among the top managers causing the government to lose money through delays.
The PPDA Executive Director, Mr Benson Tumuramye, revealed that the Authority is digitalising all systems to combat graft and ensure transparent operational transformation.
Eng Dr Andrew Naimanye, the URF Executive Director, said the collaborative procurement has helped in long term saving on rent and saving government funds.
The storeyed building has three basement levels for 153 parking spaces, seven floors of office space and training rooms and two floors of 305-seater conference halls.
