UNRA celebrates half year, but laments delays, COVID-19

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has said like all sectors, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected their ability to achieve set targets.

“Several of UNRA’s activities such as road construction were affected by the lockdown and partial lockdown during the period,” said Allen Kagina, the UNRA Executive Director in her half year performance report shared with the media today.

“Activities such as procurement and land acquisition were halted while essential services and projects continued to be implemented under very strict Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs). The result of this has been a delay in progress,” she explained.

She also explained why UNRA was only able to absorb 89% of all the money appropriated for roads.

“UNRA’s failure to absorb 100% of the released funds is largely attributed to three projects whose contracts were signed but the verification of their securities by BOU was incomplete to enable UNRA make the payments,” Kagina said, citing Kira-Matugga, Najjanankumbi-Busabala and Masaka Town Roads.

UNRA total approved budget for FY 2020/21 was Sh3.81 Trillion. Of this, UNRA was appropriated a total Sh3,402.21 billion for development of the national road network, with financing from the Government of Uganda (GoU) consolidated fund in the amount of Sh1,758.21 billion and External Financing in the amount of Sh 1,643.99 billion for projects directly supported by the Development Partners.

Of this, 89% (843.23 Bn) of the released Development GoU budget (UGX 945.79Bn) was spent by 31st December, 2020. The cumulative cash limit amounting to UShGX 1758.21Bn represents 54% of approved budget released.

Kagina revealed that UNRA is currently upgrading 26 road development projects (new construction and upgrading from unpaved to paved bituminous standards) covering a total distance 1,764.4 Km.

Over the last 6 months (July-Dec 2020), 192km equivalent were achieved against the annual target of 400Km equivalent, which represents a half year achievement of 48%. The target is to increase the paved road stock by 281km.

She also announced that preparation for the Kampala-Jinja Expressway project as a Private Public Partnership (PPP) is now complete. UNRA is awaiting final clearance and guidance from Government before going to tender.

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UNRA half Year Performance for Fy 2020-21 by jadwongscribd on Scribd