PAUL MWIJAGYE
KAMPALA, UGANDA -The European Union (EU) has said it is withholding funds meant for funding road projects in 2010 until improved policies on managing roads and spending the funds are put in place. The revelation was made by the head of delegation of the European Union in Uganda Vincent De Visscher in an interview with East African Business Week.
"Earlier this year, the European Commission withheld 40 million Euros in road sector budget support; pending a better understanding of government's policy with regard to the re-introduction of Force Account," Visscher told East African Business Week.
"Subject to the development partners being satisfied with the clarifications received and the provisions to strengthen accountability, the EC could re-launch the financing process by the end of this year which would mean the funds become available in 2011," he said.
Mr Visscher said some of the areas the EC is currently looking at for improvements include direct flow of road user charges from the Uganda Revenue Authority to the Road Fund, improved and effective axle load control and improved monitoring and evaluation framework for the road sector.
Other areas of concern include restriction of the use of Force Account, improved accountability of ensuring that the worked on roads are maintained in good state by enforcing the three axle load and making sure that there is proper supervision of road works up to the district level.
For the last three years Uganda has been trying to enforce three axle load but with little success.
"The issue of Force Account is very delicate. Although we recognise that in some parts of Uganda the government is facing difficulties to find suitable contractors such as in Karamoja, in the majority of situation, the EU Delegation believes that Uganda enjoys an emerging private sector with private contractors that could take advantage of funding coming out of the Road Fund to the benefit of a local industry in the transport sector. There is an opportunity to create skills and new jobs," Vissscher added.
The revised PPDA Act under consideration by the government proposes removing all restriction on Force Accounts.
"We believe it is important for the government to justify the use of Force Account as a transitional measure limited in time. This policy should in our views be accompanied with concrete measures towards establishing a Public Private Partnership with clear objectives and indicators in order not to be a disincentive for private contractors to invest in the transport sector," he said.
Vissscher said it is equally important that the government sets up a close monitoring system on how public resources invested in purchase of road equipment for the use by districts (US$117.2m) are used, adding that monitoring performances of individual districts road gangs for maintaining district and urban roads is critically important.
"Districts should operate with known unit costs for kilometres of roads upgraded or maintained. We would welcome introduction of "score cards" by districts in order to obtain full transparency of public funds," said Visscher. He said the EU would also welcome statistics on transport sector works contracts executed under Force Account in comparison of contracts executed by private contractors.
The European Commission has over the last seven years invested heavily in the Northern Corridor Route in Uganda.
The Jinja - Bugiri section (in eastern Uganda, 69.2m Euros) and the Kampala Northern Bypass (52.5m Euros).
East African Business Week
