There is a dispute among Mbale City authorities over the award of the street parking tender to Nalu Tours and Travels. The dispute has sacked in the Mbale City Mayor, Cassim Namugali, the Industrial Division Mayor Muhamood Masaaba, the town clerk David Kyansanku and the Resident City Commissioner, Ahamada Washaki.
The city authorities led by Namugali accuse the RCC and Masaaba of supporting Central Investments limited, which lost the tender for failure to pay council dues. The dispute started recently after Mbale City authorities contracted Nalu Tours and Travels Limited to collect street parking fees for the next eight months following a successful bidding exercise that started in August last year.
The other bidders included Globe World Engineering Uganda Limited, Bangoma Investments and Joslious Investments. However, the award of the contract to Nalu Tours and Travels Limited didn’t go down well with some leaders, saying the exercise was marred with fraud. As a result, central investments limited declined to vacate the streets despite the expiry of their contract.
It is now two weeks since Nalu Tours was expected to start collecting the parking fees in vain. According to a highly placed source who declined to be named in order to speak freely on the matter, the Industrial City Mayor and RCC are fighting the new contractor whom they accuse of getting the contract without following the due process and the fact that the company is not from Mbale.
Mbale Industrial City Division Mayor, Masaba Muhamood accuses Mayor Namugali and the town Clerk, Kyansanku of wrongly procuring Nalu, saying that he cannot allow people from other regions to collect money within MbaIe City.
He also claims that he was excluded during the contract award as he was never invited as a leader of one of the Divisions where the contractor is supposed to operate. “There’s a lot of thuggery in the bidding process in Mbale city.
” How could they hand over a contract to someone with fake documents and if Namugali was right why didn’t they involve the Division leaders if they claim to be doing good,” he said. According to Masaaba, awarding such contracts to outsiders is denying the local people an opportunity for employment.
Ahamada Washaki, the Mbale City Resident Commissioner told journalists during a press conference in his office on Monday that there is no way he would allow Nalu tours and Travels to carry on with the street parking fees collection because of the fraudulent award of the contract. According to Washaki, he has instituted a committee to investigate Nalu tour and travels Ltd on allegations of forgery.
Mbale city council Public Relations Officer, James Kutosi, said the authorities are currently engaging all the stakeholders to find a way of harmonizing their positions on the matter.
He insists that Nalu Tours and travels fulfilled all the conditions set out in the bidding process and dismissed the claims of forgery. According to Kutosi, the council has lost over Shillings 100million in street parking fees over the past six months because of the conflicts.
Musa Kasajja, the Mbale City Industrial Division Speaker, says that the conflicting leaders are fronting their own interests are opposed to those of their electorate. He says that the fights are affecting the service delivery because the city is losing revenue, which would be used to offer the services to the people.
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