At a yet to be designated date, the house committee on the Public Accounts Committee (Local Government) is set to inspect the state of road infrastructure in Luweero district.

Gilbert Olanya (Kilak North, FDC), the chairperson of the committee announced this while meeting district officials on Friday, April 5, 2024.

“ This road will be one of those the committee will inspect  when we  visit some selected projects, in Luweero,” he ordered.

The development follows an observation in the Auditor General (AG) John Muwanga’s report on the 2022/23 Financial Year (FY).

During the year under review, Muwanga notes that the entity had an approved budget of sh82.4b, out of which sh80.3b was warranted. 

This resulted in a shortfall of sh2.1b which affected the implementation of several projects including routine mechanised maintenance of Damascus Kiwagunzi road and procurement of motorcycles under Uganda Road Fund.

MP Emmanuel Ongiertho raising a point during the engagement

District responds

In light of this, the district engineer Robert Kalenzi explained that affected projects were rolled over to the ongoing 2023/24 FY.

Kalanzi expressed skepticism that it will be worked on in the last quarter of this fiscal year alongside, much worse roads.  

“Although Damascus Kiwangunzi road was mentioned, it was not the only project that was not worked on in that financial year. Kikyuusa-kibengo and others were also not handled,” he stated.

“It (Kikyuusa-kibengo) was in a worse state compared to the road that was captured, Damascus Kiwangunzi. It will be upon completion of that if we realize funds in maybe quarter four, we shall work on it. We ought to have worked on it but as you are aware, in quarter three we didn’t receive any money,” Kalanzi explained.

MPs disagree

However, the assertion that maintenance works on Damascus Kiwanguzi Road will only commence after the others have been worked on irked lawmakers.

“We don’t need to argue too much. Accounting Officer, if I were you, a road which is mentioned by the auditor, I will make sure that I work on that because if the auditor comes back and again talks about the same road, it becomes very dubious,” Emmanuel Jor Ongiertho (Jonam county, FDC) argued.

Others including Sowedi Kitanywa (Busongora North, NRM) expressed concern with documents submitted.

The engagement between PAC and Luweero District on Friday

“The submission of the work plan may not be sufficient. We want more than that, for example, I don’t know which procurement method you are going to use. Have you, for example, secured a contractor and is there a contract award? That will tell us that we are almost nearing implementation,” Kitanywa pointed out.

URF Funding

Documents seen by New Vision show that in 2022/23, Luweero district had budgeted for sh1.28b to cater for routine maintenance of district, urban and community access roads (DUCAR).

However, only sh1.153b was received, leaving a funding gap of sh127m. Of which sh634m was transferred to Town councils and sub-counties while sh518.9m was to be utilized on district roads.

In his report, AG Muwanga says that out of the money that was meant for district roads, only sh420.48m was spent, something that occasioned under absorption.

Uganda Road Fund (URF) annual work plans indicate that Luweero had planned to undertake routine maintenance road works totalling 92.3km at a cost of sh486.7m. Unfortunately, only 70.3km were worked on at sh324.4m.