Expedite funds release for damaged roads, Bunge urges

Lydia Shekighenda

DODOMA: THE National Assembly has resolved that the government should complete the..

disbursement of emergency funds requested by Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) and Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (TARURA) for renovating roads damaged by the ongoing heavy rains.

The MPs resolve follows an urgent appeal presented to the august House here yesterday by Rorya MP Jafari Chege (CCM) concerning the disbursement of the emergency funds for renovating the roads as promised by the government.

Earlier, the government through the Minister for Finance Dr Mwigulu Nchemba had pledged to release 30bn/- as emergency funds for renovating the damaged roads before the adjournment of the ongoing Parliament meeting.

Mr Chege said despite the fact that the ongoing parliamentary meeting is scheduled to be concluded today the government is yet fulfilled its pledge. He said most roads in their constituencies have been damaged by the ongoing heavy rains, affecting social and economic activities in their respective areas.

The lawmaker requested the House to treat the matter as an emergency as most roads in their constituencies were in poor state, a situation that prompted their voters to need to know measures being instituted by the government to renovate transport infrastructure.

Mr Chege said that roads touch the economy of every citizen, they are also part of strengthening political agendas, and together with other infrastructure they support various social and economic activities.

“We support the great work being done by the government to solicit funds for building transport infrastructure. We have no doubt about the money allocated in various budgets for roads and other sectors. Our concern is that we allocate budget for various projects but the funds are not released on time,” he said.

He added that even if the National Assembly increases budget for roads and the money is not released on time, it will be difficult to achieve the intended results.

The MP said that TARURA was allocated 818bn/- in the current budget but to date only 12 per cent of the funds has been released. Mr Chege said the government should make sure that it disburses the funds for road construction because the execution of the budget of the current fiscal year has entered the second half.

“Minister for Finance Dr Mwigulu Nchemba had promised in the ongoing Parliament meeting that the government could release the emergency funds for damaged roads before the adjournment of the ongoing session,” he noted.

He said as of to-date, out of the 131bn/- requested by TANROADS and TARURA only 21bn/- has been dished out for TARURA which is peanut to meet the needs. Mr Chege also called upon the government to carry out an assessment of earth roads which are regularly maintained and find out ways to ensure that they are being upgraded to gravel level in order to minimise budget allocated for maintenance of the roads.

He also urged the Ministry of Finance and other respective ministries to work on weather alerts being issued by Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) by allocating sufficient budget for road maintenance.

Responding, Dr Nchemba said that his docket received request of emergency funds from TARURA which applied for 65bn/- and TANROADS 66bn/-.

He said the government has already released 21bn/- of the 65bn/- requested by TARURA, saying 30bn/- was expected to be released yesterday (Feb 15) or today.

“For TARURA, the amount requested is 65bn/- but until tomorrow (today) a total of 51bn/- will have been released for the agency,” he insisted.

Dr Nchemba further noted that for TANROADS the release of the funds was delayed due to technical faults in government systems but assured that the monies will be disbursed soon.

Debating the appeal, Special Seats MP, Sophia Mwakagenda (CHADEMA) said roads in the country are critical network, noting that in the budget, TANROADS requested 5tri/- for road construction but received only 1.5tri/-.

“This shows how the agency receives insufficient funds to implement emergency projects, the nation must have funds in place so that action can be taken whenever there are emergencies,” she said.