Performance and Institutional Delivery Capacity of Key Road Sector Agencies in Uganda

Sustainable development of road infrastructure can be achieved by establishing autonomous institutions. The road network must operate efficiently so that activities, operations and movements are conducted seamlessly. Competent institutions are required to achieve this goal.  Unfortunately, the roads subsector in Uganda is facing numerous challenging empirics: nascent and emerging institutions, high unit rate cost of road works, traffic jams, overloading, harsh climatic conditions, varied geographic terrain, inadequate drainage, and lack of timely maintenance, lack of policy guidelines, overlapping mandates, fragmentation of planning, inadequate numbers of trained and experienced staff, lack of centralized database, shortage of financial resources, weak corporate governance, delayed procurements, over reliance on foreign expertise, and corruption.  The main objective of this paper was therefore to review the institutional capability, organizational capacity and professional competence of road sector-specific agencies. The methodology used included; documentation review, meetings, interviews, questionnaires, participatory workshops, and field work. It was established that balanced economic and development status of the country was directly related to its road network. It was found that the total length of road network was 146,400km of which less than 5% was paved, comprising: national, district, urban and rural roads.  It was further found that the road sector was a major driver of economic social transformation since it: links the producer with the consumer, promotes economies of scale and specialization, saves time, facilitates exploitation of natural resources, promotes industrial development, encourages agricultural linkages, facilitates defense good governance and security, promotes tourism, social and cultural activities. These were regarded as being meritorious. It is recommended that since the roads sector serves multiple purposes, but is always changing, radical but flexible solutions be continuously proposed. The main conclusion is that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve all road sector-specific institutions in the country.