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As the effects of heavy downpour on infrastructure like the roads and bridges continue, Parliament local government committee chairperson Ojara Mapenduzi has asked local district leaders to make use of the recently released funds to fix the road network before the financial year ends.

The call follows the release of funds for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2023/24 by the finance ministry two weeks ago, in which shillings 7.687 trillion was released for the April to June quarter.

A total of 40.2% of the released funds will go towards government development programmes, which include road infrastructure construction and maintenance.

Appearing on one of the TV stations in Kampala today, April 24, 2024, Mapenduzi said although procurement processes have to be followed, local governments can use a method where they don’t have to hire contractors but can spend the money on for example fuelling existing road equipment at the district, purchase of raw materials like murram, stones, hiring drivers with proper documentation to work on damaged roads.

"The only challenge to this approach is that the recently created cities lack road equipment and because the funds were released late, it may be hard for city administrators to hire equipment from districts as these too may be in use now," he added.

Mapenduzi further appealed to the finance ministry to in future release the funds in the stated period to facilitate work in local governments.

Impact of delayed releases of funds to local governments

Due to heavy rains, roads across the country have been affected, the most notable is the Masaka Kampala route that was destroyed by heavy rains over the weekend forcing traffic diversion for three days to pave the way for repairs.

A similar situation was reported in Sironko district, where the only bridge that has been connecting people who stay up in the mountains of Butandiga and those below was destroyed when one of the big stones was forced down as a landslide.

Other cases of impassable roads due to ongoing rains have been reported in Butaleja district and then Mawokota in Mpigi district among others.

Although UNRA has completed work on the Masaka-Kampala highway, repairs on roads in other parts of the country are yet to be noticed.