MPs task UNRA over shoddy road works

The Mukono-Katosi road under construction. The road is the subject of investigation by government agencies over corruption allegations. Photo by Geofrey Sseruyange

Parliament.
A watchdog committee of Parliament has opened an investigation into whether officials at the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) fraudulently sanctioned the shoddy road works pointed out in the value for money audit report of the auditor General.

UNRA boss Kimeze Ssebbugga yesterday struggled to respond to Auditor General’s queries, highlighting what legislators called a deepening crisis in the roads sector they blamed on the “inefficiencies” at the authority.
Explaining the shoddy road works, Eng Ssebbugga admitted that some local contractors have no capacity and that they are trained by giving them work.

UNRA boss explains
“Every system has its weaknesses, our contractors are poor and struggling but we have a duty to develop them,” Eng Ssebbugga said.
The audit revealed that the causes of distress on both paved and gravel roads include inadequate gravel cover, excessive moisture and inferior sub-grade. However, the committee faulted UNRA officials after it emerged that they failed to establish to subject the samples from the failed sections of the road to laboratory tests.

The effect of this, according to auditors, is “work has to be repeated on the same spot every other month resulting into wastage of man power, time and financial resources, yet the condition of the road remains the same or continues to deteriorate.”
UNRA officials explained that inadequate maintenance intervention on the road network is due to the limited budget resource for maintenance. However, the lawmakers dismissed this explanation after it emerged that last year, UNRA failed to utilise Shs40billion.

“We have shoddy road works because UNRA does not have a materials engineer, they don’t have a strategic plan and the designers are inadequate,” Mr Eddie Kwizera (Bufumbira East) said.
Eng Ssebbugga said last year, the roads body returned Shs40billion to the consolidated fund due to delayed procurement.
He also disagreed with some findings of the auditors. “Although we have inadequate staff, it’s not true that we don’t test materials. To ascertain causes of these failures, we carry out some tests,” he said.

NAMED ROADS
Some of the named roads with distress include; Mbale-Tororo, Lira-Aduku, Kapchorwa-Kapkwata, Katooke-Kagadi, Nyakahita-Rushere-Rwakitura, and Jinja-Kamuli. The audit said not all culverts on the 35 roads inspected were adequately maintained. Failure to maintain culverts leads to clogging resulting into stream water washing away the roads. This according to auditors destroys investment.