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The demand was made yesterday by the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) following a presentation of a report on issues raised by Auditor General for 2021–2022 concerning the roads. The report was presented by Nakawa West legislator Joel Ssenyonyi.
Ssenyonyi, who is also the chairperson of COSASE, disclosed that his committee became interested in the situation when it discovered that KCCA had quoted extravagant prices for services that the Ministry of Works had paid a cheaper price for.
As a result, some members demanded an investigation into the mess during the plenary session, which was presided over by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, and suggested that it be cleaned up soon.
Tayebwa mandated an audit of the price of every road that the KCCA built.
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COSASE also has tasked the National Water & Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) to expedite investigations into inflated water bills.
The recommendation is contained in a report by the committee on the Auditor General’s report of the corporation for the financial year ended 30 June 2022.
According to Ssenyonyi, the committee received complaints from the public that NWSC estimates their bills and charges exorbitantly without proper justification.
He added that said the corporation's accounting officer told the committee that they have not detected any wrongdoing on their part, and that some of the high bills could be as a result of water leaks.
“Complaints of inflated water bills affect the willingness of the public to pay, and taint the image of the corporation. The committee recommends that NWSC expedites the investigation of public complaints, sorts them out with immediacy and provides a report on the same to Parliament with six months,” Ssenyonyi said.
Michael Timuzigu MP Kajara County proposed that NWSC, a public utility company 100 per cent owned by government, incorporates the digital component of billing to solve the challenge of inflated water bills.
“The issue of having bills which cannot be trusted by customers was the same problem with Umeme until they introduced the system of Yaka which is digital. NWSC should do the same since it does not compete with any other entity,” Timuzigu said.