By Michael Odeng and Paul Kiwuuwa
Journalists @New Vision
The government loses sh342m daily in interest to road contractors who have not been paid for their work, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) executive director, Allen Kagina, has said.
“Sh342m is charged daily as interest for nonpayment to contractors, translating into sh10b for every three months. This is a big loss to the government and the taxpayers. It could have been avoided if the finance ministry had paid the released budget for the previous fiscal year,” Kagina said.
She made the revelation while appearing before Parliament's finance committee on Tuesday.
Kagina said the debt has accumulated to that magnitude due to the finance ministry’s failure to release budgetary allocations for the previous financial year.
She, therefore, requested the Members of Parliament to stop asking for more roads because the government does not have enough money to construct them.
UNRA’s head of corporate strategy, Chares Kizito, and director of corporate services, Edna Rugumayo, who presented the impact of the inadequate cash limit for the half year of the financial year 2022/23 to the committee, flanked Kagina.
Dr Keefa Kiwanuka the chairperson of the Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development. Photo by Maria Wamala
Rugumayo said that by June 2022, 76% of the approved government development budget was released. Of this, 99.8% was absorbed.
However, UNRA closed the year with a debt of sh421.633b on this budget component.
Finance committee chairperson, Dr Keefa Kiwanuka (Kiboga East), said finance minister Matia Kasaija should appear with UNRA before the committee to brief the MPs on the next course of action.
Source; New Vision.
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