Road fund boss raps gov’t over low funding

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Eng. Micheal Odongo, the executive director Uganda Road Fund-URF has expressed concern about the funds allocated to the fund and failure by government to ope-rationalize alternative income sources for the fund.

Addressing journalists at Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA on Thursday, Odongo said their budget was cut without any explanation despite the large amount of work they have to finance across the country.

In 2017/2018 financial year, the fund received Shillings 417 billion despite budgeting for Shillings 800 billion.

In 2018/2019, the fund received Shillings 542 billion out of the Shillings 1 trillion the fund had asked for.  In the recently approved budget, the budget of the fund was cut to Shillings 470 billion.

According to Odongo, Uganda’s Roads are valued at 6 billion USD (approximately Shillings 22 trillion). He says the roads cannot be well maintained with a small budget.

The fund cannot effectively execute its mandate and deliver as expected. In 2016, out of the planned 2,000 kilometers of unpaved roads, only 900 kilometers were maintained under periodic maintenance.

Under routine maintenance, out of the planned 16,000 kilometers, 15,000 were maintained nationwide while of the planned 350 bridge maintenance works, only 85 were covered.

Odongo blames their failure to meet their target on under funding. According to the URF Act, the fund can receive money through the government budget, donations approved by government and from road user charges.

Road User Charges include fuel levies, international transit fees, collected from foreign vehicles entering the country, road license fees, axle load fines, bridges tolls and road tolls and weight distance charges and fines under the Traffic and Road Safety Act among others.

However, Ogongo says the alternative sources of revenue haven’t been ope-rationalized by government, which has left them stuck with funding through the national budget.

He says that even with the few sources ope-rationalized, the fund doesn’t benefit.

For instance, he says that money generated from fines under the Traffic and Road Safety Act isn’t remitted to the fund.

According to the Police 2018 report, over Shillings 15 billion was paid to Uganda Revenue Authority-URA by traffic offenders.

At the back of all this, the URA act provides that all the money collected should be sent to the consolidated fund except what has been allocated to run the affairs of the authority.

URF, is a government agency established by an Act of parliament. Its object is to finance the routine and periodic maintenance of public roads in Uganda and ensure that public roads are maintained at all times.

It is also expected to advice government on the preparation, efficient and effective implementation of the annual road maintenance programme and control of overloading of vehicles on public roads.

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