Takeover of municipality roads by govt is welcome

Government is considering taking over the tarmacking of roads in the 41 municipalities in order to ease accessibility and improve socio-economic development in the country (see ‘Govt plans to takeover municipality roadworks, in the Daily Monitor of February 14, 2019).
During a meeting with municipality mayors and town clerks held at Hotel Africana last Friday, the Minister of Local Government, Col Tom Butime, said the move is intended to ensure that roads within the municipalities are of the same standard as those of the capital city.
This is a welcome move. We hope that when the minister presents the proposal to Cabinet suggesting that the construction of municipal roads be taken over by the Ministry of Works, it should be enthusiastically endorsed. This should be able to free the current arrangement where municipality roads are maintained through the Uganda Road Fund, which also caters for other roads in the district local governments. In fact, considering the very poor state of roads in our municipalities, which are characterised by dust during dry season or are rendered impassable and muddy in rainy season, are potholed and narrow, many people are left wondering whether municipalities have what it takes to construct roads.
However, when the minister suggests that unlike the national roads, the municipalities would take over the maintenance of these roads after Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) hands them over after completion, some questions arise. To many, this proposal would be like taking one step forward and then three steps backwards.
First, were the dusty roads due to lack of human resource, inadequate funds, or lack of equipment? If their failure arose from depending on mother districts for equipment to be able to work on the roads, then what will they rely on or use to maintain roads after they are handed over to them.
Even then, can the municipalities satisfactorily account for the help, however minimal, they got from the mother districts? Besides, even if the municipalities get the requisite funds for keeping the roads in good state, what guarantees will be put in place to ensure that the funds do not go missing due to corruption?
If the roads would be handed over to the municipalities, then the government should first establish why the municipalities could not maintain the roads using the Uganda Road Fund. In light of this, it is imperative that the central government takes over and also maintains municipality roads for they are doors to the districts.

The issue: Municipality roads
Our view: If the roads would be handed over to the municipalities, then it is critical that the government first ascertains why municipalities could not maintain the roads using Uganda Road Fund. Nevertheless, it is imperative that the central government takes over and also maintains municipality roads for they are the door to the districts.