By Joel Ogwang

THE Uganda Road Fund (URF) will not finance new road projects, Dr. Michael Odongo, the executive director, has said.

He said the fund would only bankroll periodic and routine maintenance of the existing roads.

“By law, the fund doesn’t own any road. It is, therefore, not in our mandate to build new ones,” Odongo said.

He was speaking during a consultative workshop on road maintenance programmes at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala recently.

He pointed out that it was the responsibility of the Uganda National Roads Authority, municipal and town councils and sub-counties to ensure that the roads under their jurisdiction were motorable.

“When a road deteriorates beyond maintenance, we will not fund its repair,” Odongo explained.

Effective July 2010, he said the road fund would be fully operational. The fund became active last July, while its funding was effected this month.

Odongo said when fully operationalised, the fund would be evaluating the needs of agencies, recommend tariffs consistent with established needs, collect road user fees and other taxes.

He revealed that sh116b was available from the consolidated fund to finance projects in the third and fourth quarters of the 2009/10 fiscal year.

The road fund was established by an Act of Parliament in August 2008 to ensure adequate and sustainable financing of maintenance of public roads.