NEWS- The speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Annet Among has directed the Minister of finance, planning and economic development Matia Kasaija to quickly find out the reasons as to why the districts in Northern Uganda have not yet fully received the one billion shillings which is meant to be given to every district for road maintenance.
The speaker’s directive follows a debate on the parliamentary committee on infrastructure committee report on the roads and bridges in the Northern Uganda.
The report read by the deputy chairperson of the committee Topnny Awanyi revealed that the government has tried to put in place some good roads in the region as well as maintaining the ones in place.
The report also revealed that refurbishment of the railway line passing through the region is under way and that UNRA and the Ministry of works are trying to reconstruct all the bridges which were destroyed recently.
Tony Awanyi in his report also recommended that the government quickly completes the upgrading of Arua, Kitigum and Kidepo airfields respectively to ease transport in those areas and that the government should provide the necessary funds to do that work in time.
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Members of parliament welcomed the report but were unhappy with the delayed road construction works, bridge maintenance works in the northern Uganda.
The MPs also revealed that some districts in Northern Uganda have not yet received their one billion shillings meant for road maintenance.
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The legislators’ complaints prompted the speaker to task the Minister of finance Matia Kasaija to explain if they have fully released all the one billion meant to be given to every district in every financial year.
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In his response, Kasaija told the house that he can’t commit himself if all the money was released to all districts but asked for some time to contact the technical people on that matter.
The speaker granted him 30 minutes to contact the permanent secretary in his Ministry and other technical people he is talking about so that he confirms to the house on the progress of the disbursement.
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