Francis Gimara the chairperson of the Public Procurement and Disposal Assets Appeals Tribunal and other members who include; Nelson Nerima, Geoffrey Nuwagira Kakira, Paul Kalumba, Keto Kayemba and Charity Kyarisiima, Eng. Cyrus Titus anonymously cancelled the Shs3bn office space deal that the Office of the Prime Minister awarded to city businessman King Ceasor Augustus Mulenga.
In their ruling, the Office of the Prime Minister directed within 10 days of working hours after the delivery of their decision to re-evaluate the illegalities committed when handling the previous bidding deal awarded to the businessman who was eyeing to be a member of the National Resistance Movement’s top organ the Central Executive Committee (CEC).
The decision resulted from the complaint filed by Twed Property Development, contesting the process which resulted into declaring Mulenga as the best bidder.
Twed Property Development insisted that there were a lot of illegalities
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The Tribunal agreed with the complainant that many of the illegalities which resulted into the contestation of the entire process resulted from the decisions made by Rose Alenga the Under Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.
“By a letter dated October 30, 2025, one Alenga Rose, on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, communicated an administrative review decision to the Applicant. The Tribunal was however unable to find any evidence that noted that Alenga Rose was authorized or delegated to perform the role of Accounting Officer as required under section 41 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, cap. 205,” the ruling reads in part.
According to the Tribunal ruling, Twed Property Development filed an administrative review after losing the deal complaining to Dunstan Balaba the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office who is the Accounting Officer on October 20, 2025 citing illegalities committed Among their grounds include the substitution of the best evaluated bidder’s read-out price and erroneous reliance on the Chief Government Valuer’s opinion.
He also cited the issue of material technical non- compliance with the requirement presented when applying for the deal and in response Alenga, who claimed that she was working on behalf of the Permanent Secretary confirmed that there were illegalities in the process and on those grounds, they nullified the notice of the winner Mulenga on account of material deviation from the technical requirement.
Tribunal documents further indicate that Alenga cancelled the deal without citing the recommendation made by the Procurement and Disposal Unit of the Prime Minister’s Office or from the Contracts Committee of the same government ministry which was supposed to guide the cancellation of the procurement process.
Tribunal documents indicate that in May 2025, the Office of the Prime Minister urgently invited three bidders in writing to provide office space to the ministry.
These were, Twed Property Development Ltd, King Ceasor Augustus Mulenga and Speke Hotel (1996) Ltd.
They only received bids from two of them.
Twed Property, which is the complainant offered to provide 3,630 sqm of office space, at plot 16 Lourdel Road and plot 18 Kyadondo Road Kampala, at Shs353,535,000 per month, VAT exclusive.
Mulenga the best bidder offered to provide 3,500 sqm of office space at plot 9 Portal and in October, 07, 2025 was declared the best evaluated bidder at a monthly contract price of Shs290,622,200, totalling Shs3,487,466,400 annually for 3,433.68 sqm of lettable space and 100 parking slots (inclusive of taxes)
However, the winner was pronounced without the involvement of the Chief Government Valuer.
When the valuer was contacted and assessed both bidders, his findings were that the cost of the office space was exaggerated. It was lower than what the Prime Minister’s Office agreed with the winner.
They agreed to re-negotiate the deal again which also violated the entire process.
