Kampala — A government report on the Busega–Mpigi Expressway has detailed the central role played by the former Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) in planning, approving and implementing the project before its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Works and Transport under the Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX) programme.
in a report shared with the daily mirrorug, prepared to document the status of the project at the time of the transition on December 23, 2024, states that UNRA was solely responsible for the project’s contractual, technical and engineering decisions during the implementation period before the transfer.
According to the report, UNRA signed the consultancy contract for design review and construction supervision on December 19, 2018, before awarding the civil works contract to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation in joint venture with China Railway 19th Bureau Group Co. Ltd. on June 18, 2019.
The report says UNRA, through its Executive Director, eng Allen kagina exercised the powers of the Employer and Client under both contracts, while the Ministry of Works and Transport was not a party to the agreements before RAPEX.
One of the most significant decisions taken by UNRA was the approval of a revised road alignment after project implementation had commenced. The revised alignment, communicated to the contractor in July 2019, prompted a comprehensive review of the engineering design, project quantities, bridges, drainage structures and other works.
Following the review, the Executive Director approved the final updated design on October 8, 2021, before authorising implementation of the revised scope of works in February 2022.
The report notes that the revised design substantially increased the project’s scope, leading to higher quantities of work and additional funding requirements. In July 2023, UNRA formally requested supplementary financing from the Ministry of Finance, explaining that the revised design had created a funding gap, although the final project cost was still under review.
By October 2024, the supervision consultant estimated that the revised contract value had risen to about Shs1.37 trillion, excluding VAT. The consultant also reported that the contractor had suspended works after the original contract amount had been exhausted and financing for the revised scope had not yet been secured.
At the time UNRA’s functions were transferred to the Ministry of Works and Transport in December 2024, the project had achieved about 46 per cent physical progress but remained under suspension.
The report concludes that all major contractual decisions, including contract awards, approval of the revised alignment, approval of the revised design and authorisation of the revised scope of works, were undertaken under UNRA’s governance framework before the agency was dissolved.
It adds that the Ministry of Works and Transport inherited an ongoing project whose key technical and contractual decisions had already been made. Since taking over, the ministry has focused on reviewing project costs, securing additional financing from the African Development Bank and negotiating the additional scope of works required to complete the expressway.
While the report attributes the major project decisions to UNRA, it presents a chronological account of decisions taken before and after the transfer of functions to the Ministry of Works and Transport.
