Despite billions of shillings being allocated annually for the maintenance of district roads, many rural communities across Uganda remain isolated by impassable roads, raising fresh questions about accountability and the effectiveness of public spending.
Every financial year, the government releases funds to district local governments (LGs) through the Uganda Road Fund to undertake routine and periodic maintenance of community access roads. These roads are expected to connect farmers to markets, enable children to reach schools, improve access to health facilities, and stimulate local economic activity.
However, in several districts, cities, municipalities, and town councils, roads listed as maintained in official reports remain riddled with potholes, washed away by rain, or completely overgrown with vegetation. During the rainy season, some become inaccessible, forcing residents to walk long distances or abandon travel altogether.
The poor road network has left farmers counting losses as they struggle to transport produce to markets. Transporters say the deteriorating roads increase vehicle repair costs and fuel consumption. Expectant mothers and critically ill patients face delays in reaching health centres because ambulances and other vehicles cannot access their villages.
The persistent state of disrepair has prompted concerns over whether taxpayers are receiving value for the billions invested in district road maintenance. Governance experts argue that the problem is not only inadequate funding but also weak supervision, poor planning, and limited accountability in the implementation of road works.
Mr Job Kiija, the associate director at Innovations for Democratic Engagement and Action (IDEA), told Business Outlook that the public narrative surrounding district infrastructure is centred on the illusion of ‘billions of shillings allocated,’ yet Uganda’s decentralisation model suffers from a massive structural funding deficit.
He pointed to collective allocation to LGs consistently remaining below 10 percent of the National Budget, with the creation of more than 135 districts not helping matters.
Such is the costly administrative apparatus that, Mr Kiija said, 80 percent of the funds reaching LGs are consumed by recurrent expenditure, including wages, administrative overheads and allowances. This leaves less than 20 percent for capital development and infrastructure investment.
‘The Uganda Road Fund, therefore, frequently releases capped and delayed payments that can only finance superficial road scraping and grading, leaving roads vulnerable to being washed away during the rainy season,’ he said.
Too many flaws
Mr Kiija also pointed to major accountability gaps, including alleged collusive procurement cartels that favour politically connected contractors over technically competent firms, institutional capture of district engineering departments, and weak community monitoring.
The latter is because residents often lack access to bills of quantities, engineering designs and detailed budget breakdowns.
To ensure value for money, Mr Kiija called for open contracting, with all district road procurement details, unit costs, contract specifications and company directors’ identities published on a public online portal.
He also proposed independent technical audits, including physical core testing and drainage assessments, before final contractor payments are approved. He urged the government to blacklist non-performing contractors nationwide and subject culpable approving engineers to asset recovery and criminal prosecution. Infrastructure designs should be strengthened by making heavy-duty drainage, stone pitching and concrete culverts mandatory for district road projects.
The Auditor General’s 2025 report on the field inspection of road maintenance works implemented in 148 LGs, conducted between October and December 2025, revealed significant challenges affecting road infrastructure and service delivery. Two hundred and thirty-nine roads, covering 1,275 kilometres across 66 LGs, were incomplete at the time of the audit inspections.
In addition, 76 LGs had 228 roads with unsatisfactory works, including broken culverts, poor drainage and uneven carriageways with water ponding, among other defects. The shortcomings affected timely service delivery.
Accounting officers attributed the poor performance of road maintenance works to limited funding, heavy rains, inadequate road construction equipment and a lack of regulated control of carriage loads on LGs’ roads.
Mr Emma Bwayo, the Namisindwa District chairperson, told Business Outlook that there is a lot of impunity in LGs. ‘Some officials misuse public funds with arrogance and often shift the blame for their own mistakes onto others. The cost of road repairs and maintenance has also been inflated in many cases. As we struggle to maintain district roads, some teams at the sub-county level allegedly divert or share the limited funds allocated for road maintenance.’
‘There are also serious weaknesses in accountability systems within local governments, which are sometimes compromised. Rural roads require urgent attention, but the shortage of qualified engineers in our district is another major challenge. Some of the people responsible for technical work are not sufficiently qualified,’ he added.
Solutions needed
Mr Bwayo proposed that aspirations and responsibilities of the Road Committee be aligned with those of the engineers to ensure proper planning, supervision, and accountability.
‘The Office of the Auditor General also needs stronger oversight and independence. In some cases, audit systems appear to clear projects that have not been properly implemented, while internal audit mechanisms at the district level also need strengthening. Poor weather conditions are another factor contributing to the rapid deterioration of roads, but this should not be used as an excuse for poor workmanship or misuse of funds,’ he said.
Mr Balaam Barugahara, the LG minister, and his junior minister, Ms Justine Nameere, have, during their countrywide tours to expose corruption, ordered the arrest of several engineers in districts, cities and town councils across the country. Several of the engineers have since been interdicted over alleged mismanagement, neglect of duty and other administrative irregularities.
The engineers are also accused of mismanaging more than Shs1 billion in road funds and overseeing allegedly shoddy road works in their respective areas. The arrests and interdictions come amid growing concerns over the quality of road maintenance works and the management of funds allocated to local governments for road infrastructure.
Mr Allan Ssempebwa, the senior communications officer at the Ministry of Works and Transport, said Shs1b is allocated annually to districts and cities for road maintenance. He added that the Ministry of Works and Transport sends maintenance grants to districts, town councils and sub-counties every quarter, depending on the size of their respective road networks. On average, each district receives about Shs100 million in maintenance grants.
‘The local governments are given the funds and are required to account for how the money is used,’ said Mr Ssempebwa.
What next?
As the government continues to prioritise infrastructure development, communities are calling for stronger oversight of district road funds, publication of road maintenance plans and expenditures, and stricter action against officials found to have mismanaged public resources. For many Ugandans living in rural areas, the issue is no longer whether money is being allocated. It is whether the billions spent on district roads are translating into roads that genuinely connect communities-or disappearing long before the work reaches the ground.
Mr Marlon Agaba, the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) executive director, told Business Outlook that road works are typically carried out towards the end of the financial year, largely to facilitate accountability for the funds. He cited cases where bridges are poorly constructed and cannot withstand the volume of water, resulting in them being washed away.
‘Corruption has significantly affected road construction and maintenance, particularly works undertaken by local governments,’ said Mr Agaba, adding that corruption in the tendering process that sees some contractors allegedly pay money to secure contracts has forced them to cut corners and undertake substandard work in order to recover the money spent to obtain the tenders.