By eastafrican gazette
Efforts by the government to dissolve the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) appear to be stalled after the Physical Infrastructure Committee in Parliament rejected the move.
Despite the Minister of Works and Transport explaining how this would save the government billions, MPs claimed it was likely to cause additional delays in the completion of key projects.
UNRA is one of 33 government departments and entities that have been listed for merger in several ministries.
According to the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Repeals and Amendments) Bill, which was gazetted on October 6, 2023, the Uganda National Roads Authority Act, 2006 (Act 15 of 2006) will be altered to “mainstream the functions of UNRA established under the Act into the Ministry responsible for roads.”
The Uganda National Roads Authority, formed by Act 15 of 2006, will be dissolved with the commencement of the new Act.
The Works Ministry will be responsible for performing all the functions formerly performed by UNRA, such as managing, maintaining, and developing the national roads network; advising the Government on road policy matters, and assisting in the coordination and implementation of road policy; contributing to the addressing of transport concerns in overall national planning through coordination with the relevant ministries, departments, and agencies.
While appearing before Parliament, the Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala, claimed that dismantling UNRA will save the government a whopping shs39 billion per month in wages paid to the authority’s present bloated human resource structure.
He emphasized that this money would be used to build roads to alleviate Ugandans of potholes.
Katumba urged MPs to support the government’s proposal to abolish the Uganda Road Fund, stating that such a move would relieve the government of the financial drain on its resources as well as the weight of excessive expenditure at UNRA.
“To restructure and re-organize these agencies and departments of Government, we want to eliminate bloated structures and functional ambiguities in Government. Agencies operate bloated structures which aren’t aligned to the mandates and are a drain to the treasury, thus defeating one of the objectives of cost cutting. Our country is faced with a situation where we must be extremely frugal and already, we hear cries of reforms in every sector of this country,” he noted.
However, Dan Kimosho, Chairperson of the Physical Infrastructure Committee, reminded the House that taxpayers would have to delve deeper into their pockets to raise shs227.24 billion in compensation for all UNRA employees who would be laid off if the decision to dissolve the agency is confirmed.
“The Certificate of Financial Implications, shs11.562billion had been mentioned as terminal benefits for UNRA staff, yet from the interactions, it became apparent that UNRA would require shs227.24billion as severance package for staff. This is a huge cost which would erode the stated savings from the merger. It is also inappropriate to incur this unjustified cost amidst accumulated contractor debts that have to be paid,” he noted.
He went on to defend UNRA’s alleged excessive salary bill, stating that one of the reasons for creating the authority with attractive remuneration was because the line ministry was unable to attract highly skilled people due to low salaries.
“The same Ministry cannot at this point be indicating that attractive remuneration offered by UNRA is a problem. Furthermore, the issue of salary disparities is not only limited to UNRA and it cuts across the entire Public Service,” Kimosho noted.
The committee also rejected the government’s argument that UNRA’s existence has imposed a financial drain on government resources and thus a burden of wasteful expenditure, citing the shs75 billion UNRA collected in toll revenues from the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway, which is deposited into the Consolidated Fund after operational and maintenance costs have been met.
“And this revenue is expected to increase upon the completion of Busega-Mpigi Expressway,” he added.
The committee warned that abolishing UNRA would lead to delays in execution of projects and the Authority should be retained because it has served the mandate for which it was created and thus, still relevant in Uganda.
They went on to argue that Uganda still needs to undertake major national road projects such as tolled expressways and toll operations, dualling of major road corridors, flyovers, and long span bridges (such as the Nile Bridge), emphasizing that all of these projects require more specialist skills and efficient management than what UNRA currently has, and that UNRA should be improved rather than mainstreamed.
The Minister requested extra time to submit new revisions to the Uganda National Roads Authority Amendment Bill 2024.