Kagina vows to tackle corruption in UNRA

May 05, 2015

The new Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) executive director, Allen Kagina, has vowed to weed out the corrupt. This, she will do by tightening the supervision function of UNRA to ensure quality roads are delivered.


By Alfred Wandera

The new Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) executive director, Allen Kagina, has vowed to weed out the corrupt. This, she will do by tightening the supervision function of UNRA to ensure quality roads are delivered.

Kagina who addressed her first press conference Tuesday morning at UNRA headquarters in Kampala said she will not leave a few rotten individuals taint the image of the whole corporation.

She acknowledged the herculean task ahead of her to combat corruption that has taken a toll on the roads body, and called upon all stakeholders to work with her.

“I have heard that there are people who want to interfere with UNRA’s operations by virtue of the positions they hold. I will not hesitate to expose them in a list of shame,” Kagina said.

She said she needs about three months to conduct an audit of the roads agency so as to implement the necessary changes.

Kagina promised to study the organization to see where the gaps are, remove non-value adding activities and build processes and systems to ensure UNRA’s image shines.

“I want to spend the next three months getting familiar with UNRA operations. I have been called a non-engineer. I am getting used to that. I will look at projects and processes to get an understanding of the sector and look at the budget and audited reports,” Kagina said.

Kagina said the road agency has had problems with absorbing funds allocated to it, vowing to ensure that no money will be returned to the treasury when there are so many roads across the country that need to be worked on.

“UNRA is allocated about 20% of the national budget. The challenge has been that releases have been delaying. We shall work with the ministry of Finance to ensure faster release of the money so that we don’t accumulate interest on refund of the money. I don’t want to return any money to the treasury next year,” said Kagina.

Kagina previously served as Commissioner General of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) from 2004-2014.

She is credited with turning around the performance of the tax body and has been recognised by a number of institutions, including the Parliament of Uganda, for transforming URA into a reputable Government organisation.


 

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