Parliament has ordered an audit into the cost of construction of roads by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) after a number of lawmakers said City Hall had been turned into a crime scene and den of den of corruption where deals are cut and executed at the detriment of the city dwellers.
The MPs made the remarks while debating a report from the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) into the audit findings by the Auditor General for 2021/2022 read by Joel Ssenyonyi (Nakawa West), who detailed the rot at KCCA.
Ssenyonyi informed Parliament that COSASE’s attention was drawn to the high cost of road construction in Kampala, where the rates charged by KCCA were beyond the ones quoted in a study by the Ministry of Works and Transport that indicated that as at 2020, a kilometre cost US$ 650,000 (Shs2.405bn) for roads under 70 kilometres, and USD 580,000 (Shs2. 146bn) for roads over 70 metres.
He explained that KCCA management submitted that the cost was much higher due to additional elements like pedestrian walkways and traffic lights on some of the roads, however, an inspection by COSASE revealed that not all roads had pedestrian walkways or traffic lights and therefore, the high cost per kilometre is not justifiable.
“Their excuse was because of traffic lights and pedestrian walkways. That is the only reason they gave as what is causing the high cost of roads. But you see we visited these roads and some of these roads are in our area, for example Kulambiro-Kyanja Ring-road is in my area, that road cost over Shs9Bn per kilometre. Not the entire road, per kilometre. It has no traffic lights, the pedestrian walkways that is, doesn’t cover the entire road. So, I told them that that excuse doesn’t apply here because you are saying that traffic lights and pedestrian walkways and even the others we visited. That is why we insist, that cost per kilometre is too high,” remarked Ssenyonyi.
His revelation angered MPs like Rose Obigah (Terego DWR) who called for a thorough clean up amongst all staff at KCCA, saying they aren’t worth to hold any office because of the theft and corruption they are presiding over at City Hall.
She said, “I want to tell you there is a lot going on in KCCA. There is a lot of theft, connivance, grabbing of people’s land. Unless we turn KCCA upside down and show them that this country has right people who are upright thinking in the 11th Parliament, they are bound to kill this country. These are people who have lost integrity, they aren’t worth to hold any office, let us start from the top to the bottom, clean KCCA, let us sweep it clean.”
Kumi Municipality’s Silas Aogon weighed into the debate saying, “Sometimes I think, why don’t we get foreign engineer to come and cost us some of the roads? Because costing is where the problem has come from. How can we pay a lot of money for just one kilometer of the road? And when you ask why, somebody says it is because of the lights. How much do the roads cost? Just turning red and green and it becomes so costly?”
Timothy Batuwa (Jinja South West) compared KCCA to a dining room and the only activity taking place is feasting on taxpayers’ money to the extent of making their own accounting rules where information management system for their accounts isn’t put on the computer because a computer can be audited and asked Government to come up with unit cost of road construction so as to guide the country on what to do.
“When I listen at the cost of constructing our roads, the excuse that KCCA gave that whereas Ministry of Works indicated Shs2.1Bn for a road below 7Km and Shs2.4Bn for a road above 70Km, shamelessly, KCCA is constructing those kinds of roads at a cost of Shs14Bn and there is one they indicated Shs24Bn and the reason they justified that are the walkways. Even if you are to desire Ugandans to have walkways similar to the road you are constructing, it would still be cheaper,” said Batuwa.
Deputy Speaker, Tayebwa wondered what is special about the cost of Kampala roads that cost three-four times roads in other cities like Masaka, Mbarara and Soroti yet they have the same designs, walkways and traffic rights, calling for a probe to unearth mystery behind the inflated costs.
“There is a problem somewhere, very big problem and we need to tackle it head on, whether it means us holding onto some loans or urging the Minister to talk to the lenders we have to look into it deeply, it is a shame. There is no way you can defend this before people. By the way, there is nothing special about these roads in the city, they are not that complicated, you can even use our National Enterprise Corporation if people are conniving in each and every way, it is really painful,” said Tayebwa.
Parliament adopted the Committee recommendation to have the Auditor General conduct a special audit into the cost of roads in Kampala within 6 months from the date of adoption of this report.
