Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure has summoned former Works and Transport Minister Gen Katumba Wamala and former UNRA Executive Director Ms Allen Kagina to explain loopholes unearthed in the tolling system on the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway that lawmakers say could be causing financial losses.
The decision came on Tuesday after legislators conducted an on-site inspection of toll gates along the 25km expressway and found the system used to handle collections is largely manual and vulnerable to abuse.
In an interview minutes after the inspection at the Kajjansi toll gates, committee chairperson and Mbarara City South MP Mr Mwine Mpaka said they needed answers from those who approved and renewed the contract.
‘This is under investigation, and we are concluding, but we can’t give so much information; we have to observe every flaw with the system. We are more or less in the hands of the young people who sit in the booth,’ Mr Mpaka told this publication during the inspection.
He added: ‘We have come to see hands-on how they handle money and the transactions. We have looked at several issues, and we have discussed with the ministry, and where we didn’t receive satisfactory answers, we are inviting them again for the last meeting on Thursday.’
The committee now wants to probe how the Ministry of Works and Transport, together with the then UNRA, contracted private firm Pinnacle Security Limited to handle collections on the road.
‘We have invited everyone who was involved in the construction of this road and procurement of the contractor, including the former E.D Allen Kagina. We have also invited the former Minister Gen Katumba Wamala who renewed this contract and every other person who was involved at whichever stage to come and give us an explanation,’ Mr Mpaka said.
How the system is failing
Spot checks on the expressway showed the system regularly fails to classify vehicles correctly before confirming the fee to be charged. In one case, lawmakers found that a higher classification that attracts a higher toll could drive through and be charged as a saloon car.
‘The discrepancy is in the classification. There is usually a misclassification between class two and class three. That misclassification is usually reconciled through the viewing of the video footage by a staff member who does it every other day,’ a committee official said. ‘The classification is manual because it is a manual classification system,’ he added.
MPs say this manual process is among the issues causing revenue leakage.
The committee also found that the system occasionally freezes and stalls, allowing cars to drive through without paying. This was confirmed by Mr Francis Katamba, the project manager under Pinnacle Security Limited, the firm contracted to handle toll collections. ‘Yes, that is a scenario that we have been experiencing. In some situations where one vehicle passes, they time and pass before the barrier comes down the next car. These incidents have happened, and we have got culprits,’ Mr Katamba conceded.
He was quick to add that ‘many of them do this without knowing and they go back and pay cash.’
When pressed to provide figures on losses incurred from such glitches, Mr Katamba instead told lawmakers: ‘there are no financial losses from that tolling. This I can assure you.’
Background on KEE
The Kampala-Entebbe Expressway is a four-lane dual carriageway linking Kampala to the country’s international gateway, Entebbe. The 25km stretch was built to cut travel time from about two hours to about 45 minutes.
Basing on a five-year contract, the toll system was in late May 2021 handed over to Egis Road Operation to operate and manage collections. After that contract elapsed, the government, through the then Works Minister Gen Katumba Wamala, transferred the KEE tolling project to Pinnacle Security Limited.
The committee is expected to meet the former minister, former UNRA boss and other officials on Thursday for what Mr Mpaka called ‘the last meeting’ on the matter.