Parliament has suspended new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Works and Transport on the absorption of the Shs1billion district road maintenance fund.

This followed concerns by Hon. Patrick Nsamba Oshabe (NUP, Kassanda County North) who said that, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Waiswa Bageya recently issued new guidelines that capped the cost of rehabilitation of district roads at Shs8million to Shs20million per kilometre.

Nsamba said this new guideline is restrictive and costly in nature and significantly affects the number of roads or kilometres to be rehabilitated in a financial year. 
He urged that the mandate to determine road priorities and costs in the districts should be bestowed upon the district roads committee.

With the new guidelines, Nsamba said districts will only be able to maintain about 120KM of roads rather than about 220KM. 
“This kills the purpose [of this road fund] which was to make all roads motorable…We have district road committees which prioritise what is most effective in their work plans. The ministry should not prescribe how much is used for a particular road,” Nsamba said.

The Government Chief Whip, Hon. Denis Hamson Obua concurred with the House’s decision to suspend the new guidelines and pledged to immediately write to the ministry to halt the implementation of the same. 
“I will write to the Works Ministry to halt the implementation of new guidelines. In Alebtong, we were doing a kilometre for motorability at Shs3.5million and we were able to cover 220kms in one financial year,” Obua said adding that district roads committees should be given powers to determine how much can be spent in a kilometre.

“How can you say a kilometre should be between Shs8million to Shs20million? You can't predetermine the cost without knowing the nature or terrain of the roads,” Speaker Among said, before putting a question for suspension of the guidelines.