Minister of Works and Transport, General Katumba Wamala
Members of Parliament on Budget Committee have strongly opposed a plan by the Government of Uganda to spend Shs254bn on the construction of roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The MPs’ objection was revealed during a meeting held between Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Works officials who had appeared before the Committee to defend a Shs3.4 trillion supplementary request pending approval of Parliament.
Minister of Works and Transport, General Katumba Wamala told the Committee that Shs200bn is earmarked for Uganda’s contribution to construction of 223km of roads in the DRC following a bilateral agreement between Uganda and the DRC to implement strategic infrastructure projects.
According to the understanding, Uganda will contribute 20% of the roads project. The total project cost is $334.5m, thus putting Uganda’s contribution to $66.9m approximately Shs254bn.
Cecilia Ogwal (Dokolo district woman) expressed shock at government’s decision to prioritize roads in the DRC over roads within Uganda that need urgent attention.
She told Gen. Wamala that despite the economic value of the roads in the DRC all the outstanding urgent roads in Uganda need to be fixed before embarking on the regional infrastructural project.
Richard Othieno also lashed out at Minister Katumba for abandoning his commitment to inter-connectivity roads in the country and was instead seeking funds for roads in the DRC.
Gen. Katumba said, for long, Uganda had been seeking to improve its relations with DRC and urged Parliament to approve the budget so as to boost trade between the two nations.
However, State Minister for Finance, David Bahati said that the regional inter-connectivity projects also need to be prioritized since they promote trade, security and cooperation.
He said the project was a resolution of a bi-lateral agreement between the two presidents – Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC and Yoweri Museveni and a sign of warm relations between the countries.
