MPs grill Katumba over DRC roads budget

“Have you looked at our district roads? They are impassible. How can you care for other people’s roads when ours are in a bad state?” MP Cecilia Ogwal asked.

Members of Parliament on the budget committee questioned Government's decision to construct 223km of roads connecting to major towns in eastern DR Congo.

The project, according to finance and works ministers David Bahati and Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, is estimated to cost about sh250b. The joint venture is estimated to cost $334.5m in total.

Cabinet last week approved the construction and upgrading of a joint venture road project that will see Uganda's national road connected to a number of major towns in eastern DR Congo.

Those to be worked on include the 80km road from Kasindi section on the Uganda border to Beni, on the eastern border of DR Congo.

Also included in the project is the integration of the Beni-Butembo Axis (54km) to National Road and the Bunagana Road on the border, as well as Ruchuru-Goma Road (89km).

In November last year while at the Joint Business Forum held in Kampala, President Yoweri Museveni and his DR Congo counterpart Felix Tshisekedi signed an agreement to jointly construct a number of border roads to promote bilateral trade, investment and connectivity between the two countries.

President Museveni said the two countries would build stronger ties by building roads and bridges connecting the two countries.

Data by COMTRADE indicated that in 2018, Uganda's total exports to DR Congo stood at $532m, with informal trade exports worth $312m and formal trade accounted for $221m.

Uganda's imports from DR Congo were $34.49m. Bahati, while presenting the financial request to the committee chaired by MP Amos Lugoolobi, explained that following a bilateral agreement between the two countries to implement strategic infrastructure projects, the Government has committed to fund 20% of the total project to construct and maintain 223km of the road network connecting the two countries.

Katumba Wamala, Minister of Works and Transport

He said the support was aimed at boosting trade between the two countries, ease business, improve people to-people connectivity and security.

"It was agreed that the two countries will each provide 20% of the project cost and the private contractor will provide 60%. DR Congo has now become one of our biggest export markets in the region. It used to be South Sudan, but since the outbreak of the conflict, the market has changed," Bahati said.

"As we invest in production, we need to also invest in the market. For us to get money, we need to invest and these are interconnectivity projects that we need to promote trade," he added.

MPS' RESPONSE

The MPs said although they had no problem with the idea, they put the two ministers to task to explain why the Government had decided to construct roads in a foreign country when most of the roads in Uganda were impassable. They also asked the ministers to explain whether Parliament had approved the joint venture project.

"This is unacceptable. DR Congo is a sovereign country. You are spending money outside our territory. According to the Constitution, you should have sought prior parliamentary approval. As a committee, we agreed that there is a lot of trade with DR Congo, but we need to follow the law," Lugoolobi said.

"Have you looked at our district roads? They are impassible. How can you care for other people's roads when ours are in a bad state?" MP Cecilia Ogwal asked.

She advised the two ministers to incorporate the internal road works in the project for them to approve the funds. Finance's director for budget Kenneth Mugambe informed the committee that the ministry has already allocated funds for internal road connectivity.

"The biggest expenditure budget on roads is allocated to Uganda National Roads Authority and we have released to them the required amount in the first quarter. In the second quarter, we have allocated money for connectivity," he said.

The MPs, however, said they would not approve the money until the ministries seek guidance from the Solicitor General on whether it is not against the law to approve funds for a project before Parliament approval.