UNRA does not have idle money
EDITOR: This is in response to a letter in yesterday’s New Vision titled “UNRA should work harder on roadsâ€. The writer alleges that Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has returned huge sums of money to the Treasury and should be able to hire companies to work on 1000km of Kampala roads.
EDITOR: This is in response to a letter in yesterday’s New Vision titled “UNRA should work harder on roadsâ€. The writer alleges that Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has returned huge sums of money to the Treasury and should be able to hire companies to work on 1000km of Kampala roads.
UNRA is not in charge of Kampala roads and does not have idle money to be allocated to city roads. UNRA has money committed to ongoing national roads projects and cannot divert these funds to roads in Kampala. The money allocated to UNRA is not even enough to implement our national projects.
We currently have over 10 major road projects that have failed to take off due to insufficient funding. Projects like Mukono-Jinja and Bugiri-Malaba have very direct impact on our national economy.
These kinds of allegations and misinformation to the public are denting the image of UNRA and making it more difficult for the institution to access funds. It is important to note that UNRA has achieved a lot since it started operations two years ago.
Anybody who has used our national highways over the last one year can testify that our roads are better today than two years ago. We have completed over 500km of new roads over the last one year and we have over 1000km of roads currently under construction.
This has been done despite all the challenges of the tedious procurement processes and poor performance of contractors. Public expectations of UNRA are very high and as technical people, we welcome this and we are working hard to meet the expectations.
What we do not welcome is the suggestion that funds now committed to highway projects like Kampala-Masaka road are diverted to fix 8th Street or any other road in Kampala.
Dan K. Alinange
Kampala
UNRA is not in charge of Kampala roads and does not have idle money to be allocated to city roads. UNRA has money committed to ongoing national roads projects and cannot divert these funds to roads in Kampala. The money allocated to UNRA is not even enough to implement our national projects.
We currently have over 10 major road projects that have failed to take off due to insufficient funding. Projects like Mukono-Jinja and Bugiri-Malaba have very direct impact on our national economy.
These kinds of allegations and misinformation to the public are denting the image of UNRA and making it more difficult for the institution to access funds. It is important to note that UNRA has achieved a lot since it started operations two years ago.
Anybody who has used our national highways over the last one year can testify that our roads are better today than two years ago. We have completed over 500km of new roads over the last one year and we have over 1000km of roads currently under construction.
This has been done despite all the challenges of the tedious procurement processes and poor performance of contractors. Public expectations of UNRA are very high and as technical people, we welcome this and we are working hard to meet the expectations.
What we do not welcome is the suggestion that funds now committed to highway projects like Kampala-Masaka road are diverted to fix 8th Street or any other road in Kampala.
Dan K. Alinange
Kampala