Kole, Uganda – The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kole North, Dr Samuael Opio Acuti, has written to Raphael Magezi, Minister of Local Government, about the inflated costs of community access road construction and rehabilitation.
The road works are planned under the national oilseed project.
In his letter received by the office of the minister on July 25, Dr. Opio penned that the national oilseed project under the Ministry of Local Government encompasses various activities.
These activities include the rehabilitation of community access roads in 81 districts that grow oil seeds such as soya and sunflower, among others.
The MP stated that bid invitations have been issued with a budget of UGX100 billion for 81 districts, with 15 km of roads targeted for rehabilitation under ‘batch A procurement‘ per district.
According to the lawmaker, the majority of the roads averaged 15 kilometres when the bid advertisement was published on May 30, 2024.
“The allocations per district are estimated at 1.358 billion for the 15 km roads translating to UGX90.5m per km as the cost of construction/rehabilitation of community access roads which are unpaved/murram in nature,” MP Acuti brought to the attention of Minister Magezi.
“According to the Ministry of Works and Transport, the indicative cost per km for rehabilitation/construction for FY24/25 as stated in the FY 21/22 budget framework paper is UGX30m per km.
Kole North MP Dr. Opio also informed the Minister that the budget estimates for gravel road construction/rehabilitation in several districts under contract arrangements are as low as UGX15 million per kilometre.
“This implies that the planning figure currently being used is three times that from the Ministry of Works and Transport and almost 6 times that used by several local governments. If this were to be used, then the planning figures are inflated by UGX73 to 90 billion.”
“The purpose of this communication is to seek clarification on the above costs and propose their downward revision to allow for more roads to be covered in each district.”
“I believe that instead of 15km, over 50km can be covered in each district,” wrote Kole North MP on July 25.
The national oilseeds project (NOSP) is a seven-year project from 2021 to 2028, funded by IFAD and other global development partners.
The government is working with various partners to commercialise value chains of key oil seeds, while improving community access roads.
Source: tndNews.
