Masaka District Roads Committee has blocked a proposal by Masaka Municipal Council to divert funds from the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development-USMID Project to work on some roads under the central government.
USMID is a World Bank funded project under, which government secured a loan to help selected municipalities to improve their infrastructure.
Masaka municipality is one of the urban councils benefiting from the project. The others are Mbale, Fort portal, Soroti and Mbarara among others.
Recently Masaka Municipal authorities proposed to spend Shillings 30 billion from the second phase of the project to work on central government roads in the area.
In his letter to the Works and Transport Minister, the Masaka Mayor, Godfrey Kayemba Afaayo indicated that they would spend the money to work on the 13 kilometer stretch of Nyendo-Masaka that is in very bad shape.
However, Masaka District Roads Committee has raised a red flag on the proposal, saying it is illogical for the municipality to divert money to projects out of its mandate.
Charles Komaketch, the Uganda National Roads Authority Masaka Station Manager, says that they have included the road stretch under the Nyendo-Bukakata road works that are expected to commence in July.
He wonders why the municipal authorities rushed the proposal to divert USMID funds despite receiving assurances that the road will be worked on.
