Arua Hospital and DI staff pose for a group photo with RCC Akello and her team during the ground breaking ceremony on Monday. PHOTO BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI

BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI

ARUA. The government of Uganda with funding from the World Bank has injected shs4.5billion into the construction of a purpose driven blood bank at Arua regional referral hospital.

Speaking during the handover and groundbreaking ceremony of the construction works on Monday, Dr. Alex Andema, the Arua regional referral hospital Director said of the shs4.5bn, shs2.9bn has been earmarked for the construction of the facility while the remaining balance of shs1.6bn will be used to procure equipment including a vehicle for the department.

The one-year multimillion project was awarded to Arua-based Development Infrastructure (DI) Construction Company.

Arua Hospital and DI staff pose for a group photo with RCC Akello and her team during the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday. PHOTO BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI

“This is a contract which is referred to as a highbred contract whereby the entity works with the central government to procure the services of the contractor and the consultant. The scope of the project is the blood bank itself and a staff house,” Andema said.

“The staff house has four units and equally has a bedroom, a sitting room, a kitchen and a washroom. And the staff house is designed for those staff who will be on duty since blood services are 24 hours. This facility is for the whole of West Nile, so there are people who may come from Adjumani, Pakwach to collect blood for their facility and just in case time cuts them short and they are unable to go back, they can also sleep there,” Andema explained.

Andema urged all stakeholders to closely monitor the project to ensure that it succeeds. He also appealed to the contractor to commit himself to the project so as to avoid shoddy work.

It is on this ground that Sunday Etrima Olise, the DI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said they don’t have any motivation to do shoddy work.

“DI is 100 per cent home grown company. We also feel happy when our local companies go and compete at the national level and win such projects. It gives us happiness as a region and also pride that we have the internal capacity to implement. So, we shall do our best such that it gives the public confidence in local companies that instead of such projects being implemented by European, Asian or generally foreign companies, we want to bring confidence in the local companies that they can be trusted that they can do the work,” Etrima stated.

He said in construction, after finishing work, there is supposed to be six months of liability period, adding that such a period is when after completing work, a contractor keeps around to see if something happens and fixes it.

“But for us, our liability period is for the rest of our lives because we are from here. This means that there will be no motivation on our side to do shoddy work because if we do shoddy work, we don’t have another home to go to. We are from West Nile, we are from Arua, our parents are here, so we don’t have any motivation to do shoddy work,” Etrima emphasized.

RCC Akello lays a foundation stone at the site of the blood bank on Monday. PHOTO BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI

“We are not going to do this project to get money, but we shall have that reflection in our minds that the people who are going to get services in this facility are our own people. It could be my wife, it could be my daughter, it could be my mum and it could be my neighbor. So, why should we do shoddy work when I know that the person who is going to be served is my relative or it is me?” Etrima asked.

Dr. Alice Akello, the Arua Resident City Commissioner (RCC) commended Etrima for engaging the community members to own the project.

“I want to thank the son of the soil (Etrima) for engaging the community to tell them why this project is coming here. That is what every contractor is supposed to do. Many contactors sneak, they even go to the extent of doing things at night so that people don’t know what they are going to do and at the end of it all, the community plan to go and steal the materials, they plan to sabotage the work, but I want to thank you for being a good son of the soil, keep it up!” Akello said.

She, however, said Etrima has spoken very well but they are yet to see the fruit of his talk.

Meanwhile Dr. Isaac Atiku, the head of Arua regional blood bank said now that they have got a home, the purpose-built blood bank will be used to process the different components of blood to serve people within Arua.

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