A recent examination by parliamentary committees has uncovered alarming and exorbitant costs in urban road projects across Uganda, leading to significant losses of public funds. The findings, which include reports from the Auditor General, reveal extreme variations in the cost of constructing or rehabilitating roads of similar length in different cities.
The most glaring discrepancy was identified in Arua City, where the rehabilitation of a 1.4-kilometer road cost a staggering UGX 13.4 billion. An additional UGX 3 billion was spent solely on supervising this project.
In a similarly shocking case, Fort Portal City spent UGX 21.4 billion to construct a 2.7-kilometer road. Meanwhile, in Mubende, the cost for a slightly longer 2.9-kilometer road was UGX 14.22 billion.
The committee noted that these costs are “obnoxiously high” and lack justification. For context, the Ministry of Works and Transport’s own study established that the average cost for upgrading a paved road was approximately UGX 3.1 billion per kilometer in the 2018/2019 financial year.
Using the ministry’s benchmark, the funds spent in Arua (UGX 13.4Bn) should have constructed over 4.3 kilometers of road, not just 1.4km. Similarly, the UGX 21.4 billion used in Fort Portal could have built nearly 6.9 kilometers.
The massive cost overruns and wild variations between similar projects have been flagged as a major cause for concern, pointing to potential gross inefficiency and the loss of vast sums of public money. The committee has highlighted that the Ministry of Works is developing a software-based cost estimation system to bring transparency and standardization to future projects, a move prompted by these damning findings.
