Members of Parliament have initiated an inquiry into the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) following revelations of inconsistencies in employee payroll records and compensation procedures. The inquiry, conducted by the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE), chaired by Medard Lubega Ssegona, delved into the findings of the Auditor General’s report concerning UNRA’s financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024.
The report highlighted significant disparities in employee records within UNRA, including instances of partially verified temporary and permanent staff. Out of the total 1,442 employees listed on the primary payroll, 1,283 (88.97%) were fully verified, while 155 (10.74%) were only partially verified. Additionally, among the 193 temporary staff listed in UNRA’s February 2023 salary payroll, 134 (69.4%) were fully verified, leaving 52 (26.94%) partially verified.
Furthermore, discrepancies were noted in the names and National Identification Numbers (NINs) of 69 employees on the main payroll, along with one temporary recruit. The Auditor General’s report also revealed an under-remittance of local service tax amounting to sh51.7m, alongside 37 vacant positions out of the 1,480 approved positions within the authority.
Parliamentarians expressed concern over UNRA’s failure to provide wage estimates and recruitment plans to the finance ministry. Moreover, they questioned the accumulation of long outstanding payables, some of which had been unresolved for over two years, totaling sh621.496b as of June 30, 2023.
According to the Auditor General, such prolonged outstanding payments could signify deficiencies in budgeting and pose risks of litigation and penalty payments for delayed settlements. Brenda Kyasiimire, acting Director of Human Resources at UNRA, attributed the errors to data inconsistencies in names and NINs, partly attributed to system errors during data migration from Excel to Human Capital Management Software (HCM), and human data entry errors.
In response to queries regarding outstanding payables, UNRA’s Executive Director, Allen Kagina, cited budget cuts from sh3.003t to sh2.654t, resulting in a sh349b deficit for ongoing projects. Additionally, she noted a disbursement of sh7b to settle domestic arrears amounting to sh471b, which was insufficient to cover debts for projects outside the government’s project implementation plan (PIP).
A review of UNRA’s land acquisition status as of June 30, 2023, revealed challenges in compensating Project Affected Persons (PAPs) from road projects. Despite acquiring over 28,960.87 acres of land from 172,608 PAPs, payments totaling sh2.490tn were made to only 139,933 individuals for 22,383.03 acres of land, leaving over sh773.7b outstanding. Delays in payments were attributed to outdated valuation reports and inadequate release of funds.
Notably, certain road projects such as Kinja-Mbulamuti, Kyenjojo-Rwamwanja, and Tororo-Busia had not compensated any PAPs. For others like Kawuku-Bwerenga and Namugonde-Bugiri, payments were stalled due to incomplete documentation, rejected awards, or delays in fund allocation.
