The Minister of Energy, Eng Irene Muloni has decried the worrying trend of individuals frustrating compensation processes by over pricing their land which she said sabotages government projects.
She said this is among the major challenges the energy sector is faced with in implementing projects both in electricity distribution as well as the development phase petroleum and oil.
As part of the ongoing Manifesto Week, Minister Muloni was Thursday addressing the media on what has been achieved in the Energy Sector in line with commitments made by the NRM government two years ago.
“Our laws say land belongs to the people, but projects like electricity are also for the benefit of the people,” Eng Muloni stated.
The Minister condemned the habit of people speculating upcoming government projects, rushing to acquire land in strategic areas and in the end inflating the prices of land for compensation.
“It is going to make it difficult for government to deliver services to the people. We want cheap electricity yet the land where it is supposed to be passing, you [people] are pushing the price high,” she said.
Muloni explained that the delays in land acquisition due to either over pricing or refusal to offer land stalls infrastructure projects, subsequently causing the cost of implementing these projects to shoot through the roof. Often times, she said, the final cost demands are not anticipated in the planning process.
She appealed to Ugandans to be realistic and patriotic, since upon completion, these services benefit everybody.
“These same delays affect the amount we require as government for counter-part funding for some of these projects. We budget for Shs 1 billion for land compensation, but you get on the ground and people have over charged to a tune of Shs 20 billion,” she said.
In mega projects where Uganda has sourced financing from external loans, failure to execute a particular project in the designed period prolongs the period of servicing these loans and attracts additional costs in interest.
“When Ministry of Finance can’t find this money, procurement will be delayed and this results in huge project costs,” she added.
The problem of land acquisition is not unique to Ministry of Energy. Other government agencies such as the Ministry of Transport as well as Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) whose work largely invokes physical infrastructure have continuously suffered similar hindrances.
It is for this reason that government is proposing amendments within the Land laws to allow for compulsory acquisition of land for public projects while disputes (if any) on compensation can be settled in courts of law as implementation of the project proceeds.
But the proposed amendments have been widely opposed by the opposition as well as some sections of the public who say land must be acquired after compensation is made.