Government Apologises for Slow Pace of Road Construction

Members of Parliament demanded on Wednesday that government provides them with a list of all road contracts and road contractors in the country, to allow them monitor closely whether the contracts are being implemented according to their required standards.

The demand came shortly after a heated debate on the status of roads in Eastern Uganda, during which the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, threatened to mobilize her constituents to sleep on the Jinja – Kamuli road.

Kadaga said the stretch was so bad that it had become so difficult to travel on the stretch and yet there was no information coming from government about its status.

Thedebate on roads was raised by Eng. Patrick Oboi, the MP for Kumi County who said that the Tororo – Mbale – Soroti road via Kumi had become so bad that school pupils had resorted to using it to make quick money off motorists who commonly get stuck along the road. Oboi accused  Dott Construction Services of inefficiency and failing to do serious work on the road.

Andrew Baryayanga, the Kabale Municipality MP also accused Dott Services of doing a poor job. He said the company had constructed the Kiira – Namugongo road and that in a few months, there were potholes on the road.

They said a number of the roads were built without drainage channels and culverts.

The MPs said that it was important government works harder on constructing the roads because without them even the talk of Prosperity – for – All could not be achieved.

Works Minister Eng. Abraham Byandala was forced to apologise for the slow pace of works on the eastern routes and accepted that he would immediately direct his officers in the department to start furnishing MPs, RDCs, CAOs and DISOs with the entire road scope for easy monitoring.

Byandala said the ministry had recently been affected by the heavy rains, causing droughts in some of the areas. He said he knew of the problem but did not want to rush some of the work so that value for money is achieved.

The minister said he would soon return to parliament and request for additional funds to finalize roads planned to be worked on this year. He said he would not about 500 billion shillings.

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