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Luwero, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Districts in greater Luwero are stuck with impassable roads following budget cuts in quarter one of the financial year 2022/23.
Nakaseke district was expected to receive 138.6 million Shillings, Nakasongola 130 million Shillings, and Luwero 300 million Shillings in the first quarter releases.
However, the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development released only 30 million shillings to each district.
Benjamin Makanga, the Secretary for Works and Technical Services explains that in the first quarter, they had planned to do routine mechanized maintenance on five roads which include Kibaale-Nakaseta, Bugala-Timuna-Bukuku, Kayunga-Segalye-Kirema, Kalagala-Nsasi, Kabubi-Mityomere and Lwensindizi-Kinoni-Biduku roads.
Makanga says that due to the budget cuts, the district has now decided to rehabilitate the Kabubi-Mityomere road which is estimated to be seven kilometers only.
Makanga says that at least 14 out of 30 million shillings will be spent on the roads and others may be used for supervision, road equipment as well as coordination activities making it difficult to work on more kilometers.
Robert Ssenu, the LCIII chairperson of Kikamulo sub-county says the impassable roads are affecting the transportation of goods and services in the district. Ssenu wonders what they will tell the residents who have waited for a long time to have better roads.
John Mugema, a resident along Kalagala-Nsasi road says the district has been promising to work on the road in vain and currently it is impassable. Mugema says that with the current rainy season, the area is likely to be cut off which will leave them stuck with produce.
Sam Kigula, the LCV chairperson of Nakasongola says that due to budget cuts, they intend to do only spot improvements on the most impassable roads as they wait for more releases in the second quarter.
Erastus Kibirango, the LCV Chairperson of Luwero says that the district had planned to work on nine roads in quarter one but due to the budget cuts, it intends to do spot improvement on only two roads that have been cut off by floods.
Kibirango said that they will meet the residents and explain to them the budget cuts.
Luwero district boasts of a total road network of 1338.8 kilometers of which 606.93 kilometers are maintained by the district, 164. 51 kilometers by urban councils and 567.3 kilometers by sub-counties.
Nakasongola district boasts of a road network of over 2700 kilometers and Nakaseke district manages over 1,227 kilometers of roads while UNRA handles 338.5 kilometers.
However, the majority remain impassable due to failure to work on them over repeated budget cuts in past financial years.
Recently Henry Musasizi, the Minister of State for Finance in charge of General Duties told Parliament that the Ministry released funds in accordance with the cash flow.
Musasizi explained that the Ministry would have mobilized additional funds to cover the deficit for the first quarter through borrowing but this was not possible due to the increasing cost of domestic borrowing, efforts to limit the rate of borrowing, and general deadline in consumer demand that may have an impact on revenue forecast.
He promised that more funds will be released as the financial year progresses.
In the release of funds for the first quarter, several government entities received less money than they were supposed to. The Ministry of Finance released 10.25 trillion Shillings for the first quarter against the expected 14.57 trillion. This is out of the total 48.1 trillion budget for the current financial year 2022/2023.
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