Members of Parliament on Tuesday put up a protracted fight that subsequently saw them save the Uganda National Roads Authority saved from being merged into the Ministry of Works and Transport.
It all started with the Minister for Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala presenting a bill for the merger of UNRA and taking it back to the Works and Transport Ministry.
Gen Wamala told parliament that abolishing UNRA would see government save shs39 billion in monthly wages paid to the current bloated human resource structure of the authority.
“If you are going to have effective command and control, and are also going to have effective delivery of services, our resources need to be concentrated, prioritized in quest to achieve maximum effect. That is why we are absorbing all the UNRA Staff that are willing to offer services to this nation under the public service terms and condition in the Ministry, thus, the fear which had been expressed earlier of creating unemployment doesn’t exist because we are absorbing all the members of that agency,” the minister said.
Gen Katumba also dismissed as untrue, claims that the abolishing of UNRA would lead to massive unemployment in Uganda, saying that UNRA staff interested in offering their services to would be absorbed into the Ministry of Works and these will be employed under the terms of public service.
MPs fight back
Quoting a report by the Physical Infrastructure Committee, MPs said abolishing UNRA would lead to delays in execution of projects.
They insisted the UNRA should be retained because it has served the mandate for which it was created and thus, still relevant in Uganda.
MP Dan Kimosho defended the position of Parliament’s Physical Infrastructure Committee arguing that Uganda still requires to undertake major national road projects such as tolled expressways and managing toll operations, dualling of major road corridors, flyovers and long span bridges (such as the Nile Bridge) and all these projects require more specialist skills and efficient management than even what UNRA has currently and UNRA should rather be enhanced instead of mainstreaming it.
“The relevance of UNRA is expected to even be more pertinent moving forward when more of these planned complex projects under Public Private Partnerships. The Committee further observed that a number of projects under UNRA are financed by loans whose agreements between the government of Uganda and the creditors specify that UNRA is the implementing agency. A change in the implementing agency will require re- negotiation whose outcome and duration is unpredictable,” Kimosho said.
“Government is likely to suffer a setback of delayed project implementation and completion of such important and strategic road infrastructure because of the shocks that come with the rationalization process. Further, aware of the challenges that may currently be existing at UNRA such as the bloated structure, inadequate stakeholder management as well as other governance challenges, UNRA has served the purpose of its creation and it is still relevant given the importance attached to the development of the national roads network.”
The MPs also rejected the claims by government that that UNRA’s existence has imposed a financial drain on Gov’t resources and thus burden of wasteful expenditure, citing the Shs75Bn UNRA collected in toll revenues from the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway which is deposited into the Consolidated Fund after operational and maintenance costs have been catered for and this revenue is expected to increase upon the completion of Busega-Mpigi Expressway.
The legislators also defended UNRA on claims of a bloated wage bill noting that one of the objectives for the creation of the authority with attractive remuneration was because the Ministry had failed to attract highly skilled staff 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 said.
The MPs also said that taxpayers would have to dig deeper into their pockets and raise Shs227.24bn as payment of compensation to all UNRA staff that will be laid off, if the decision to abolish the agency is upheld .
“According to the Certificate of Financial Implications, Shs11.562bn had been mentioned as terminal benefits for UNRA staff, yet from the interactions, it became apparent that UNRA would require Shs227.24 billion 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,” the MPs said.
Consequently, the MPs rejected the plans to abolish UNRA, prompting the Works and Transport Minister, Gen Katumba Wamala to ask for more time to table fresh amendments to the Uganda National Roads Authority Amendment Bill 2024.
