Parliament approves sh240b loan for roads

Mar 24, 2010

PARLIAMENT on Tuesday approved a sh240b loan which it had blocked last week. The money will be used for upgrading the Ibanda-Kamwenge road.

By Catherine Bekunda
and Cyprian Musoke

PARLIAMENT on Tuesday approved a sh240b loan which it had blocked last week. The money will be used for upgrading the Ibanda-Kamwenge road.

Works minister John Nasasira told the MPs that all roads in the country needed to be worked on.

The legislators had opposed the loan, saying the Government was concentrating on reconstructing roads in western Uganda at the expense of other regions.

Nasasira presented a list of 54 other road projects that the Government plans to work on during this and the next financial year.

He appealed to the MPs to consider roads that link Uganda to neighbouring countries as national not regional roads.
“Can we call the road from Malaba to Kampala an eastern road or that from Kampala to Katuna a western road?

These are national road corridors that serve the country,” he explained.

Defending the continuous borrowing, finance state minister Aston Kajara said the Government borrows to increase productivity in order to contribute to debt repayment in the long run.

“We don’t borrow for pleasure; the loans have been useful to the country,” he told the house chaired by Deputy Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.

Shadow finance minister Oduman Okello (FDC) asked why the loan had components on HIV/AIDS, media and public awareness campaigns and financial audits.

“There are special bodies assigned to carry out such functions, why include them in the loan. We should only be dealing with basic principles,” he argued.

Nasasira explained that all the conditions had to be met before the loan was approved by the financing body.

“Why should we lose a loan of $120m because we don’t want to fulfil a condition that will only take $100,000?” he asked.

Commenting on the high cost of road construction, the minister said the cost would be determined by the tender, adding that sh1m for a new road was acceptable.

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