Dr. Michael Odongo, the Executive Director, Uganda Road Fund

BUSINESS VISION: INTERVIEW

The Uganda Road Fund was created in 2008 to finance routine and periodic maintenance of public roads. Michael M. Odongo the Fund’s Executive Director talked to Ibrahim Kasita and Isaac Omoding. Others interviewed were managers Monica Mugenyi for Corporate Services, Andrew Grace Naimanye, for programming, Joseph Etyang for internal audit and Chris Ntegakarija, technical advisor to the Executive Director ...

Question: What is Uganda Road Fund (URF)? Answer: The Uganda Road Fund was set up by the Uganda Road Fund Act 2008 to finance the periodic and routine maintenance of public roads.
It is modeled along what is popularly known as second generation fund which are independent of government general budgetary system in how it generates revenues from road user charges and disburses for maintenance.
It is a recognition that the better and more efficient way of managing roads is to commercialise their management by putting them in the marketplace, charging for their use on fee-for-service basis and using the proceeds to maintain them in a way that ensures long term stable conditions for users.
The world over, the main road user charging instruments allowed by the Act are fuel levy, vehicle license fees, weight distance charges, traffic fines and tolls. But we are not yet looking at re-introducing the mid-90s tolls which were phased out due to inefficiencies in their operations.

Question: Do you intend to bring the wide distance charges?
Answer: No. At the moment what is important is remodeling current charging instrument mainly fuel levy based on how much the agencies we finance require for their respective networks.
If we model and find out that the fuel levy alone cannot generate this money then eventually we may introduce other charging instruments.

Question: There seems to be duplication of work among different agencies like UNRA, Ministry of Works and now the Road Fund. What is the mandate of the URF?
Answer: The road management, operation, financing and policies are issues that need to be put under separate but coordinated institutions. The Ministry of Works and Transport remains with the function of setting policies, standards and regulations for the entire road sector as well as monitoring sector performance.
The Uganda Road Fund is purely for financing maintenance; it does not execute actual works nor own any road. It does not own any maintenance programme which remains the responsibility of agencies even when URF agrees to finance it.
UNRA maintains the national roads on top of developing it. In that respect it is an agency of the URF over which we have obligation to finance the maintenance requirement and monitor programme implementation.

Question: Are you not involved in procurement process?
Answer: No. We don’t procure constructors and consultancies for agencies. We only approve their procurement plans as a trigger to financing the annual maintenance programmes.
But if agencies abuse procurement rules, we pick them out at audit stage and institute punitive actions as allowed by the Act.

Question: Maintenance works on the roads are going on. Are you satisfied with the work being done?
Answer: Whether am satisfied or not, a journey of 1,000 kms begin with one step.
The Uganda Road Fund is relatively new and it is still finding its feet in the road sector.
The institutions and individuals we have found in the sector have done their best under the circumstances to keep our roads open though weaknesses exist here and there.
There are many factors why institutions have not delivered to expectations all over the country in terms of road maintenance but one has to analyse and understand them in context.

Question: So you have been part of the problems in the road sector?
Answer: As an engineer of 20 years standing, I have been part of a team engaged in constant pursuit of solutions to problem facing the road industry in the country.

Question: You won’t criticise even when things go wrong?
Answer: No. The Uganda Road Fund has procedure of workings.
If the agencies are to reform and understand that there is a new dispensation where they have to bid for money from, then we at the URF need to constructively engage with them at all times.
Agencies must know that they can only access the funds upon demonstrating justifiable needs and exercising maximum discipline in utilising the funds.
For instance it is not accepted that you should be repairing the same pothole year after year thereby wasting money. In the upcoming regulations, the Fund will be empowered to cut off funding to agencies that continuously apply funding to treating symptoms than going to the root cause of poor state of roads.

Question: What is your objective assessment of Uganda’s road network?
Answer: The Ugandan roads progressively have improved given where we have come from since 1980s.
Beginning mid 1990’s great emphasis of Government was on maintenance and significant local and development partner monies were ploughed into the sector. Significant fraction of roads in extremely poor state was lifted to fair to good state.
At least most areas of the country are accessible by fairly well maintained roads. The Uganda Road Fund expects to build on this success.

Question: Is it true that some of the deteriorating roads do not get the right layers required because of corruption?
Answer: No. I have not met cases where an engineer can deliberately do that.
First, there are so many approval processes before you declare the road open. There is nobody who is going to put his professional life on the block by thinning out pavements by eliminating some layers.

Question: Are all the funds for Uganda road works going to pass through this agency?
Answer: All the funds for periodic and routine maintenance.
Routine maintenance involves keeping the road open, cleaning drainage, repairing potholes, slashing verges and ensuring cleanliness. Periodic maintenance involves activities such as re-sealing roads, major spot improvements, some bits of rehabilitation and re-graveling. All that money will pass through the Road Fund. However agencies will still look for separate monies for upgrading, reconstructing, and rehabilitating their roads.

Question: And who will be in charge of construction?
UNRA will be in charge of construction and major development works on national roads. Districts and urban councils will similarly be in charge of major works on their networks.

Question: That money does not pass through the Road Fund?
Answer: No. But we are interested parties and indeed we watch and pay attention to how they plan and execute their road improvement programmes.
We have interest to ensure that they give us durable pavements that don’t eventually put huge calls on our budget.

Question: Suppose the money that goes directly to UNRA is mishandled and yet you are responsible for road maintenance, how do you know this?
Answer: We pick up this in the value for money audit.
These audits go very deep. The aim is to expose those agencies who might be tempted to bury problems down in the layers and give us roads that are too expensive to maintain. We are concerned that agencies should ensure that they construct durable roads that are economic to maintain.

Question: But how do you ensure that they will make good roads?
Answer: We want to be partners with them in auditing and verifying designs. These are new ideas we are trying to come up with and sell to them.

Question: So when are you expecting to see stronger pavement?
Answer: Our declared ambition as a country is to move to middle income economy status and this is all enveloped within the national vision. As our basket of maintaining and developing roads become