State agency to start auditing quality of roads amid complaints

 

The section on Ngong road, Nairobi where four people, among them two Canadians perished in a road accident. [David Njaaga, Standard]

The Kenya Roads Board (KRB) is set to start auditing the roads developed and maintained by agencies that fall under it as it seeks to establish if they are giving Kenyans value for money.

The board on Tuesday started a search for civil engineering consultancy firms that will undertake technical and performance audits on Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA).

KRB had earlier invited applications from consultants to audit roadworks by the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The board disburses funds collected through the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) to the road agencies for the maintenance and development of various roads across the country.

The fund is maintained by motorists who pay Sh18 for every litre of petrol and diesel they purchase.

“The technical and performance audits will be carried out to enable Kenya Roads Board to assess the implementation of KRB funded urban roads programmes by Kura,” said the board in tender documents for the Kura audits. “In particular, to ensure that roadworks for maintenance, rehabilitation and development of urban roads are delivered with high-quality standards.”

It has almost similar objectives for the consultants who will be auditing roadworks by the other road agencies. This comes amid increased public concern over the poor quality of work by contractors building most of Kenya’s roads.

One such case has been the Ngong Road section between The Junction and Karen that has poorly done road surface, unmarked lanes and lack of signage that are causing accidents, some of them fatal.

“The main objectives of the technical and performance audits are to independently verify whether the roadworks under the RMLF are planned, designed and constructed in accordance with the relevant civil works contracts, standards and specifications, KRB guidelines and good international engineering and management practice,” said KRB.

“The technical and performance audits will be part of the due diligence activities for the KRB funded programmes.” KRB says in the tender documents that it also expects the audits to show whether there is value for money in the projects that the agencies undertake. The consultants selected will audit the agencies for two financial years till 2024.

KRB allocates 15 per cent of the funds collected through the levy to Kura for use in the development and repair of urban roads.

Kura has a road network of 3,818 kilometres and has been allocated Sh6.66 billion by KRB in the current financial year. KeRRA develops and maintains roads in rural Kenya, classified as Class C roads. It is allocated 22 per cent of the money that KRB collects from the RMLF.

The agency has in the current financial year been allocated Sh14.59 billion to maintain a road network of 18,630 kilometres. KRB said it would disburse Sh55 billion in the year to June 2022, which includes disbursements to KeNHA (Sh26.59 billion) and KWS (Sh651.34) for maintenance of roads.