How Shs 43bn debt continues to haunt Busabala-expressway junction

In the wake of several road tragedies at the controversial junction between Busabala road and the Kampala-Entebbe expressway, several stakeholders and technocrats at the ministry of Works and Transport have heaped the blame on the now-defunct Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra).

In December last year, government formally dissolved Unra and mainstreamed its functions into the Works and Transport ministry. However, it has emerged that the continued spate of tragedies at the now infamous Busabala junction, which was supposed to be completed in July last year, are a result of negligence and over-commitment by government done by Unra officials way back in 2020.

The Busabala flyover junction, which cuts through the expressway at almost a right angle, was initially designed to be a flyover when Unra contracted China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) for the design and construction of the 11km Busabala-Najjanankumbi road on September 8, 2020.

The Shs 258bn project also covered four interchanges, two pedestrian overpasses and supporting facilities. However, after five years, the junction still remains undeveloped, with only a pier – a vertical supporting structure – to mark its existence.

CSCEC abandoned the project in September, 2024 following failed financial planning by Unra. In trying to mitigate the situation of stalled works, Unra placed concrete barricades surrounding the junction to create a roundabout, and the same approach was inherited by the Works ministry when Unra was dissolved.

Unfortunately, the approach has caused several accidents, many of them fatal, with the most high-profile victim being the death of Rajiv Ruparelia last month.

MISTRUST

It is worth noting that before the Rajiv tragedy on May 3, dozens of other road users had lost their lives at the same spot and tragedies continue to this day.

Official records show that at the time of the stalled works, Unra owed the Chinese contractor Shs 43bn, which caused the latter to abandon the project in the absence of guarantees they were going to be paid.

“The real culprits for the multiple deaths and injuries at that junction are the Unra officials who failed to honour the terms of the contract with CSCEC. When the Kiteezi landfill disaster occurred, the ultimate cost of negligence fell on a number of top KCCA officials. Why is there no one held culpable for the expressway mess where the negligence is very apparent?” says a senior politician who preferred anonymity.

“We had secured full funding for the project. However, some officials diverted the allocated funds to other unrelated expenditures.”

A Finance ministry official who preferred anonymity says Unra had for long made similar dodgy decisions that contravene the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act.

“These laws require public officers to commit government only against available budgets. Unfortunately, within Unra, there has been a longstanding practice of signing contracts without secured financing,” says the source.

“In public service, this trend is recognized as systemic corruption.”

In fact, documents seen by The Observer show that this practice has resulted in numerous incomplete and abandoned road projects across the country. For instance, Musa Ecweru, the Works state minister, confirmed that at the time of Unra’s transition back to the ministry, it had accumulated arrears of approximately Shs 1.5 trillion owed to contractors.

Insiders intimated that this unsustainable financial indiscipline was a key factor motivating the government’s decision to rationalize Unra and other agencies back to their parent ministries.

PREVIOUS WARNINGS

In 2023, Lucy Nakyobe, the head of Public Service and secretary to Cabinet, warned Allen Kagina, the then Unra execu- \tive director, about the delays on that road ahead of the NAM and G77 summits that were scheduled to be hosted at Munyonyo.

“In one of the meetings held with the ministry of Local Government and accounting officers of Wakiso and surrounding town councils, it was decided that a meeting is convened with you to discuss the status of key roads that fall under your jurisdiction,” Nakyobe noted.

In that aforementioned meeting, Unra was blamed for poor payment modalities to CSCEC. Back then, Unra spokesperson Allan Ssempebwa said they are not upgrading Najjanankumbi-Busabala road because of the summits.

“It is part of a government program implementing it under National Development Plan (NDP) III. The project was given three years. We have not delayed; we are working in time and undertaking all the necessary activities to complete the project,” he said.

Regarding the delayed release of funds to the contractor, Ssempebwa said Unra does not disburse all the money for the project at once.

“The contractor is paid based on their performance on the project. Whenever they complete a phase, they are free to ask for funding for another phase,” he said.

WHY BUSABALA ROAD?

For this particular Busabala road project, the timing of rationalization was especially unfortunate for the contractor. With no assurance that outstanding payments would be honoured, the pace of works slowed to a near-halt.

Reached out for a comment, Allan Sempebwa Kyobe, the former Unra spokesperson and now the assistant manager Media and Communications at the ministry, asked for more time to respond.

When The Observer visited the junction last week, locals expressed dissatisfaction with the situation. One of the traffic officers stationed nearby intimated that the continued threat of disaster on the road is a result of impunity.

“That junction should have been left open (the barriers removed altogether) for public usage last year after the initial fatalities but one of the speakers of parliament often uses it as a shortcut to home. Ordinarily, people are not even supposed to cross this junction because there was a provision for an overhead footpath,” he says.

“Do you know that these barriers are removed whenever President Museveni is to use this route? It means they don’t even believe in the barriers.”

WIDER MALAISE?

A top-level source at the Works ministry has intimated to The Observer that the Busabala junction controversy is just the tip of the iceberg in malaise at former Unra.

“It has been well-known that Unra was the best-funded government entity, but to discover it is also the most indebted shocked us. A number of their projects had already stalled due to failure to fulfil funding obligations,” says the source.

One such project, according to the source, is the Kampala-Mpigi highway, which continues to suffer the same fate as the expressway.

“Project funds for that highway were swindled or diverted to other purposes and now the ministry has its work cut out to save the situation. Gen Katumba Wamala, [the Works and Transport minister], was handed a dead situation that is irrecoverable,” says the source.