Road maintenance in Rwf21 billion deficit

The Road Maintenance Fund can only raise Rwf25 billion out of Rwf46 billion that was proposed in the budget for next financial year.According to government officials, the fund began consultation with several financiers and partners to find a solution before works begin on earmarked roads begin.In an interview with The Business Times, Johnson Nyakana, Director of Administration and finance at Road Maintenance Fund, said that the deficit is due to the limited funding sources.“Funds for road maintenance are generated from two sources; fuel revenue levied on road users and road toll taxes levied on foreign registered vehicles. The two will only generate about Rwf25billion, leaving a gap of about Rwf21.3billion ahead of the many priority roads we must work upon” Nyakana said.“We have ongoing projects which are yet to be finalized and we have also proposed new road projects to be included in next year’s budget. Therefore having only two sources of revenue will not be enough” Nyakana said.One kilometer of a tarmac road costs about one million US dollars, according to the fund, and new laws state that carriageways must be increased from six to seven meters in the next financial year.“This of course comes with extra cost. The high cost of petroleum and gasoline, as well as the high cost of importing construction material is still a major challenge to the sector,” said Theophile Dusabe the head of Maintenance Division at the Road Transport Development agency. He said that government partnered with EU, World Bank, African Development Bank and the Netherland Fund pledged to fund the construction of major feeder roads at district level to improve rural agriculture production. For every litre of fuel, the Road Maintenance Fund charges Rwf62.37 for road rehabilitation; this source of revenue according to Nyakana, contributes 85 percent of the financing needed.Revenue collection by the fund increased from Rwf13billion in 2008, to Rwf18billion.However, Nyakana also singled out the weakness of some private contractors in terms of capacity to deliver in time as a challenge to road maintenance works. “Sometimes contractors do not deliver on time and so they suffer a 10 percent penalty levied on defaulting on contractual terms,” he said.“We have encouraged external contractors with the financial capacity and expertise to make joint ventures with our local contractors in order to improve their services.”Last year the fund spent over Rwf12.4billion on road maintenance projects; however in June last year, members of parliament questioned “shoddy” road works and tasked officials from the Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) to put in place measures against poor road construction and repairs on existing networks.According to the 2012/13 budget estimates, out of MININFRA’s total Rwf 291.3 billion budget share, the transport sector, through the Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA), was allocated Rwf 117.9 billion. Energy was given Rwf 128. 2 billion while water and sanitation have Rwf 20.3 billion.Transport sector priorities as of last year include: rehabilitation of the Kitabi-Crete Congo or Nil road (30Km) and the Kigali-Gatuna road (77.8km); work on the Kivu-Belt lots (66 km), Rubengera-Gisiza Road (24Km) and Gisiza-Gisenyi Road (47.9Km); demarcation of road reserves on the national road network; the One Stop Border post at Gatuna and Kagitumba borders and an access road to Tumba College.