QUESTION: You must be the most harassed minister in Uganda. Wherever you go, people must be complaining about the state of the roads.

ANSWER: I am definitely harassed. But that is what they call occupational hazards. The problem of the roads is historical. When the NRM came to power in 1986, literally all the roads were bad. So the first phase was to reconstruct the roads back to a reasonable condition. Ten years later, the reconstruction had covered most of the roads. If it used to take five hours from Kampala to Jinja, it now took one hour. The second phase was extending the tarmac road network. The network was extended from about 1,800 km to 3000 km. So the NRM added another 1,200km. We also extended the district roads from 22,000km to 27,000km, the community roads from 30,000km to 35,000km and the urban roads from 3,000km to 4,500km.

QUESTION: How come many roads are in a terrible state again?

ANSWER: In 1996 we developed what we called the Road Sector Development Programme. We agreed with our development partners that they would support us on reconstructing and tarmacking roads while we would be responsible for maintenance. Our own contribution for maintenance was supposed to increase by $4m annually until self-sustenance was achieved. But the donors, who were supposed to phase out their contribution within 10 years, withdrew much earlier. By 2002, their contribution had reduced to $1.8m. Our own contribution, too, went down. By 2004, the over-all shortfall in road maintenance was $20m per year. At that time, I presented a paper on inadequate road funding, which I called a cause for national concern. Even this financial year, we need $70m, but we only got $38m.

QUESTION: Don’t you have a say in the budget?

ANSWER: I do. But we have a budget cycle of three years and each sector is given a ceiling. You are supposed to work within that ceiling. Roads are not the only problem in the country. Classrooms, medicines and clean water are not enough. People should realise that the road sector cannot be 100% perfect when we do not have the money. The budget has only been providing about 50% of the money required every year for road maintenance. If you give me a good vehicle and you want me to drive you from Kampala to Tororo, but you put in fuel that can only get me to Jinja, you cannot call me a bad driver because I have failed to reach!

QUESTION: How are you going to solve this shortfall?

ANSWER: When the Road Fund is established by law this year, I expect that there will be enough money for road maintenance. We hope to raise about $100m annually from road user charges and levy on fuel. Part of it will be used for the maintenance of national roads. The balance will go to the districts and the municipal authorities for maintenance of their roads. My prediction is that in three years, this outcry of road maintenance will be over. I expect to have pothole-free roads and adequate and timely interventions by 2011

QUESTION: Why is the unit cost for constructing roads in Uganda so high?

ANSWER: Prices have shot up everywhere in the world. The cost of materials, such as cement and murram, has increased. Fuel and the transport cost from the sea have gone up. Another reason is that the dollar has lost value. It lost about 30% of its value in the last four years. There is also the problem of contractors. We have very few contractors who bid. Most local contractors do not have the capacity. And as our contracts are small, we do not attract big companies.

QUESTION: Why do you keep on defending local contractors who do shoddy work?

ANSWER: I am trying to build the local construction industry. Strategically, in the future, when we have Ugandan contractors who become stronger and take on the roads, the cost of construction will not be as high as it is now. Most of the money we borrow will remain here. At the moment we only remain with the road and the money paid to workers.

QUESTION: But should you reward them with new contracts when they have not done satisfactory work?

ANSWER: A local company has invested in equipment. If the company performs badly on one job, you don’t give it another contract until it has finished that job. But at the same time you want it to grow. When Zimwe was having problems with the two roads in town, we warned him and penalised him. But we did not want to kill Zimwe. He has an asphalt plant. He has a lot of equipment, such as graders and bulldozers. He is the only Uganda with such equipment. So when he finishes, we shall give him more work. But we will have helped him to correct his mistakes. Building local capacity is like bringing up children.

ANSWER: We shortlist contractors. There is open and competitive tendering. And the evaluation of the tenders is transparent. It is checked by the funding agencies, such as the African Development Bank, the European Union and the World Bank. In 99% of the cases, we give the tender to the lowest bidder. At the moment, SBI and RCC are the biggest contractors in the country because they have settled in the country, which makes it easier for them to defeat those who are coming in. They do a good job and finish the work within the time frame. They have done two projects in Kasese. They also finished two contracts on the Karuma-Arua project, one contract in Rukungiri and are now working on the Jinja-Bugiri and Kabale-Kisoro roads.

ANSWER: Roads have a life. Our roads are designed for a life of 15 years. Within that life-span they need to be maintained. A road is made up of layers. Once you reach the top, you put asphalt to make sure that it is sealed and no water enters. So when it is hammered, the layers develop cracks and the surface gets worn out. After seven to 10 years, you are supposed to repair the cracks and reseal the surface. After 15 years, the layers have become too weak and you are supposed to do a full reconstruction. But we often do not have the money to do the minimal intervention on time, after 10 years, or to do full reconstruction after they have reached their design life. So you are stuck. You just repair some potholes and put a seal on a road that is actually worn out. When a lay person sees these interventions, he thinks that the road is being reconstructed. So after two or three months, when he sees potholes appearing again, he shouts: “Shoddy work! Corruption!” not knowing that the work done was very minimal. Acacia Road and the Kampala-Jinja Road, for example, should be reconstructed because they have served their life. But I do not have the money.

ANSWER: Europe uses rigid pavements. They are supposed to last for 40 to 50 years. Europe also maintains its roads on time. It is all about timely interventions. Europe has money.
 

ANSWER: The moment you use a high quality road, the cost goes up — rigid pavements cost twice as much per kilometre. As a result, the internal economic rate of return goes down. When the rate of return is below 12%, the World Bank or the African Development Bank will not give you money. If I had the money, I would use the rigid pavements on the major roads. But even those roads need timely maintenance. Interventions need to be done before the roads start developing potholes. 

ANSWER: Whoever breaks the road should bear the cost of repairing it. When the water corporation cuts the road, it pays the ministry to do the repairs. These utility authorities should always seek clearance from the road authorities. End of Interview

The Budget Speech

[News Date: 14th June 2007]

In the Budget Speech 2007/8, read on Thursday 14th June 2007, the Hon. Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Ezra Suruma abolished Annual Road License Fees under the Traffic Act. Road License Fees were undermined by high rates of default, rampant forgery of license stickers, and required a lot of administrative resources to ensure compliance.

The Minister, however, proposed to increase Excise Duty on Fuel to recover income lost in the abolition of Road License Fees. The excise duty on diesel and petrol would be increased from Ushs. 450 and Ushs 720 per litre to Ushs. 530 and Ushs. 850 per litre respectively. This is expected to generate Ug. Shs. 76bn. Download the Budget Speech here.