Revisiting the performance of Uganda’s road sector

However, Kampala has instead degenerated into such a vast plethora of pot holes that driving is a nightmare for most motorists, never mind that billions were sunk into the city roads during preparations for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) held in November 2007. Reviewing his performance in a recent interview with Daily Monitor, Mr Ssebagala said KCC was not generating enough capital but his administration has now increased the revenue collected by at least 30 per cent during his term.

Future Outlook
Speaking at the National Budget Strategy Meeting for the 2010/11 financial year on February 26, Finance Minister Syda Bbumba conceded that Uganda’s road infrastructure “is still rated as poor hence slowing down economic activities.”

“The road network is dilapidated in most parts of the country, making a number of places inaccessible. This therefore requires an additional effort to increase on routine maintenance and enhance road development projects,” she said.

“It is recognised that in some instances, road works and other physical infrastructure development financed by the government have had questionable value for money. The causes for low value-for-money for roads and other civil works include the use of poor and unqualified contractors, low level of supervision, overloading a single contractor with many contracts at the same time, corruption and a combination of all these factors.

“While the government will verify value-for-money through audit of road works, it will address the prime causes of shoddy works, which leads to poor value-for-money,” added Ms Bbumba.

With the government running behind on its plans for the last four years, it would need to plug many of the loopholes whose existence it already seems to be aware of before the targets are achieved.