The second instalment of our Chasing Dreams in the Air series, which queried the positioning of the planned Nyakisharara International Airport as a mid-point transit, logistical and refuelling hub between China and Brazil, yielded constructive advice.
Our reportage drew critical attention to the absence of a feasibility study before President Museveni directed Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to ensure the project materialises.
With two 5.5-kilometre runways and a 3.5-kilometre runway exclusive for Very Important Persons (VIPs), the airport being envisioned to shoot up in Mbarara City is no small beer. To that end, a number of entities have been brought on board.
China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute has been tasked to conduct the feasibility study and provide architectural designs.
Hunan Construction and Investment Engineering Company will carry out the engineering works, with Blackrock Uwekeza holding the purse strings.
The on-boarding has, some justice, been framed as a classic case of putting the cart ahead of the horse. Experts we sounded out made it clear that pursuit of international aviation in Mbarara City will remain a pipe dream.
They point to the elevation of the airfield in Nyakisharara and the attendant payload restrictions as a potential spanner in the works.
Ditto queries around the soundness of transiting from either Brazil or China through western Uganda.
Evidently, the decision to ignore such red flags has the potential to hit the Ugandan taxpayer where it hurts most. A decision to course correct, therefore, would be prudent. All of which begs of the question: What happened to the Public Private Partnership Act, 2015?
The institutions that the legislation wills into existence, including the PPP Committee, PPP Unit and project teams, are supposed to ensure the protection of public interest by making feasibility studies in public-private partnerships (PPPs) mandatory. The studies are supposed to ensure technical, economic and environmental viability.
Lamentably, the weight of so-called ‘blue letters’ from President Museveni appears to be upending the guardrails designed to ensure value for money and appropriate allocation of risks to private parties.
Last year, another ‘blue letter’ from Mr Museveni to Ms Nabbanja authorised real estate developer Hamis Kiggundu to construct commercial buildings over a section of the Nakivubo Channel.
No feasibility study was carried out despite 90 percent of Kampala Central being dependent on the nine-kilometre drainage channel that spews out its contents into Lake Victoria, via Murchison Bay in Luzira.
Little wonder, an intervention described as ‘godly’ as well as ‘imaginative and simple’ seems to have instead narrowed the channel’s waterway.
Considerably. All of this shows that ‘blue letters’ should not be allowed to supplant oversight institutions. Procedural due process serves a purpose. And, in our assessment, an almighty one. This should not be lost upon Ugandans. If it is lost upon Ugandans, the country will-as our Chasing Dreams in the Air series alludes-find itself flying without wings.