The Minister of State for Trade, Harriet Ntabazi has revealed that the Shs37bn supplementary budget that was recently approved for Munyonyo Commonwealth Convention Centre will be used for procurement of ICT equipment and booking of the guests who will attend the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit.
The revelation was made by Harriet Ntabazi, Minister of State for Trade while appearing before Parliament’s Trade Committee where MPs tasked her to explain how much money has already been given for the construction of Munyonyo Commonwealth Convention Centre, where she revealed that the construction is almost complete and the latest funds will be used to furnish the facility.
“Yesterday, the issue of NAM came up in cabinet and the money that is requested for in the supplementary budget isn’t money for construction but it is money for activities of that day because construction was another agreement with Meera Investments Limited,” she said, adding that the Shs37bn will be used procure ICT equipment, bookings and accreditation.
The Minister also apologized on behalf of the Ministry of Trade for the embarrassment MPs faced when they attempted to conduct an oversight visit to assess progress of works at Munyonyo, but were denied access to the premises by security forces.
“I don’t know why people don’t allow committees to access venues, because really, the whole committee goes to visit, why not allow them, if that happened, we aren’t aware, but we are really going to take on the management of that place and ask them, why they did that because that isn’t right. I condemn it will all the strength needed,” said Ntabazi.
Early this year, Parliament approved Shs86.4Bn supplementary budget to Meera Investment Limited owned by businessman Sudhir Ruparelia to construct a conference hall that is projected to cost US$40Mn, where on his part, Sudhir pledged 2.288acres of land valued at Shs16.4Bn, while Government agreed to pay Shs38Bn to acquire 50% shares in Munyonyo resort, while the balance of Shs48Bn was given to Sudhir as a loan.
Last week, Parliament approved supplementary funding of Shs3.4Trn and among items in the proposal was the Shs37Bn to be given to Uganda Development Corporation as additional funding required to complete construction of the Speke Resort Convention Centre in Munyonyo in preparation for hosting the NAM Summit scheduled for January 2024.
Government argued that the money is intended to fill the funding gap created by UDB’s failure to provide US$10 million to the joint venture.
