Parliament has adopted a report on the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) with cases of financial mismanagement, missing wagons, disputed procurement deals and the loss and encroachment of railway land. Presenting the report on Thursday, 03 September 2026, the Chairperson of the Committee on Physical Infrastructure, Hon. Mwine Mpaka said public funds meant to revive the railway had instead been used to benefit consultants and foreign firms. “We have established a systematic failure where public f
Parliament has adopted a report on the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) with cases of financial mismanagement, missing wagons, disputed procurement deals and the loss and encroachment of railway land.
Presenting the report on Thursday, 03 September 2026, the Chairperson of the Committee on Physical Infrastructure, Hon. Mwine Mpaka said public funds meant to revive the railway had instead been used to benefit consultants and foreign firms.
“We have established a systematic failure where public funds meant to build local railway capacity and rehabilitate critical transport infrastructure were instead deployed to enrich individual consultants and foreign firms under the guise of technical expertise,” Mpaka said.
The report, adopted during a sitting chaired by Speaker Jacob Marksons Oboth focused on a Shs125 billion Spanish-funded railway project with a Shs20.8 billion capacity-building component.
The committee found that almost 90 per cent of the capacity building funds worth Euros4.33 million went to five foreign experts with some earning up to Euros32,500 (Shs140 million) a month.
The committee report also revealed that some URC employees were allegedly listed as foreign experts to access the higher payments while continuing to receive their normal local salaries of about Shs6.5 million.
The committee also found that Spanish firm, Consultrans S.A.U which designed the project feasibility study and assessed URC’s capacity needs, subsequently awarded the works contract to its sister company, Imathia Construction, through direct procurement.
Other irregularities included multi-day workshops being reduced to one-day refresher courses, Euros79,500 claimed for overseas back-office travel, project-funded second-hand pickup trucks being sold to staff and Euro60,000 meant for office furniture being used to equip offices occupied by Spanish consultants.
Mpaka said the findings raised serious questions about the management of URC assets.
“URC cannot account for its own land, its land titles or its rolling stock,” he said warning that the disappearance and disposal of wagons raised issues of criminal liability.
According to Mpaka, the corporation also holds 20,848 acres of land, of which 1,983 acres remain untitled and are affected by more than 24,653 encroachment cases.
“A further 62 railway land titles misplaced by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development during office relocations have never been returned despite reminders dating back to 2016,” Mpaka added.
The committee found that only 269Km of URC’s 1,266Km network is operational while fleet availability stands at 22 per cent for locomotives, 36 per cent for coaches and 30 per cent for operational wagons.
It also found that 112 wagons remain unaccounted for after being routed to a “virtual station” in Nyahururu, Kenya under the tracking system used by the former Rift Valley Railways.
“URC sold 152 wagons domestically as scrap and another 28 in Tanzania, but official records could not account for 82 of the scrap wagons resulting in a direct financial loss of Shs2.4 billion,” the report states in part.
The adopted report directs the Inspectorate of Government (IGG) to investigate and prosecute members of URC’s Adhoc Board of Survey, Contracts Committee and Procurement and Disposal Unit implicated in the irregular disposal of scrap wagons and the resulting financial losses.
The IGG was also directed to investigate former URC Managing Director, David Musoke Bulega, contract managers and members of management over payments for unexecuted services, questionable travel claims, unprocured software, vehicle misappropriation and contractual terms that resulted in URC losing ownership of the concrete sleeper plant.
In one of the recommendations, the Ministries of Lands and that of Works and Transport were ordered to submit a joint railway-land recovery strategy within 30 days, including action, with police and military support where necessary, to remove 1,698 identified encroachers.
The Minister of State for Transport, Hon. Julius Maganda acknowledged the extent of URC’s decline but said government is now working to revive the corporation.
“Completely everything went down… Government is beginning to uplift Uganda Railways. Look at the report but support the agency because we are now moving in the right direction,” he said.
Hon. Joseph Ssewungu (NUP, Kalungu West) called for openness and frankness in discussions on the rehabilitation of the railway.
Speaker Oboth urged the ministry to replace URC’s old coaches and increase the frequency of passenger services.
“Replace those old coaches. I want to use that train to come to Parliament. We need some coaches. I have a stage just by my house,” he said.
The Minister of State for Industry said the Executive will respond to the report through a Treasury Memorandum.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
