Yesterday, members of the Parliamentary Committee of Agriculture turned away the minister of finance Matia Kasaija for failing to provide accurate information regarding the implementation of the project to establish irrigation schemes, dams, and valley tanks in Karamoja and Teso sub-region.
The committee says its oversight tours in the two sub-regions discovered that some dams are ghosts. The Finance Minister Matia Kasaija was appearing before the parliamentary committee of agriculture investigating the stalled water dams project6 in Karamoja. The committee is concerned that the government has been pumping billions of money into the construction of dams in Karamoja but on their oversight visit in Karamoja and Teso they discovered that some dams don’t exist yet the government spent billions on them.
Last year, the government undertook a project under the Ministry of Agriculture to construct a valley dam in each district of Karamoja to provide water for crop production, livestock farming, and fish ponding. Still, several districts are yet to reap from the project. Janet Grace Okori-moe (Woman MP Abim) the chairperson of the parliamentary committee of agriculture says one of the Ghost dams is Kailong Dam in Kotido district on which the government spent over 3bn shillings.
The committee illustrated frustration that the few dams that were constructed in both Karamoja and Teso are not functional while others are silted. They questioned the finance minister why they don’t follow up on funds allocated to other ministries to ensure that money is put to good use. To the Surprise of the committee, Minister Kasaija showed up with parallel information that did not address issues of valley dams in Karamojong and Teso which irked committee members and denied him an audience. The minister told the committee that money for the construction of valley dams was allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Minister of Water and embarrassment but admitted that there is a problem .
The committee has now summoned the concerned ministries for an explanation.
