Africa-Press – Uganda. According to the Ministry of Works and Transport statistics, as at June 30, 2020, a total of 1,361,861 motor vehicles nationwide were registered on the e-tax platform while 940,160 are yet to be validated on the e-tax. This brings the total number to 2,302,021 motor vehicles.
By 2010, it was estimated that there were about 1,500 kilometres of road in the city. At a growth rate of 1.5 percent to 3 percent, subsequently, the road network has not expanded fast enough to catch up with the growth in traffic, resulting in a lot of traffic congestion and lost man hours for motorists that would have been better spent elsewhere on productive activities.
Further to this congestion is poor driving, the evidence of which has been demonstrated in the past when this publication encouraged citizen reporting on bad driving.
Kampala Capital City Authority and its contractors have been hard at work, trying to fix broken roads across the city but either the speed, funds or both are lacking to do the job in a satisfactory way, leaving the city with perennial bad patches of roads that complicate traffic congestion.
All of this has not been helped by claims of corruption in the award of contracts. As of a late July letter written to Kampala Capital City Authority, a lot of roadworks are being cancelled to pave the way for investigation into allegations of improper procurement practices.
This further constraints road rehabilitation work that is yet to catch up with traffic growth. Going by the quality of some of the road repairs which break up soon after the fix, leaving big, gaping potholes, clearly some awardees are doing shoddy work. This poor surface is costly in car wear and tear and a safety hazard for motorists dodging potholes come rain or dry weather.
This is not only a heavy cost to taxpayers but it means that it will be a long time before the city can hope for speedy road works of the right quality and which would offer value for money on contract spending.
The contractors awarded city roadworks should be held accountable not just for completion of work but for delivery of good quality work.
As the amount of traffic continues to grow, putting pressure on the existing road network, shoddy works will not hold up for long. The system of road construction and repair as a whole needs an overhaul in order to get better value for money.
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