By Joseph Mary Buwule
KAMPALA.Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) has issued a statement following reports that it spent over Shs25 billion on staff training,
URC explains the funds were tied to a broader infrastructure and capacity-building project.
The corporation’s response follows scrutiny by the Parliamentary Committee on Physical Infrastructure, which last week questioned URC top management, led by Managing Director Benon Kajuna, over the payment of Shs25 billion to five consultants, two of whom are foreigners from Spain.
Appearing before the Committee chaired by Mbarara City South MP Mwine Mpaka on 24 July 2026, Kajuna named the five consultants and their areas of expertise as Morris Tibenda (infrastructure and project management), Paul Tukashaba (management control and business administration), Pablo D. Andres (rolling stock and facilities), Paul Powa (railway operations and customer service) and Kizza Paskaziya (training school director).
Under questioning, Kajuna had confirmed that Tibenda and Tukashaba received 864 million euros and 738 million euros respectively, “according to the documentation” and “reports” given to him
In a statement issued on URC X account following the committee meeting of Parliament, URC said the figures being circulated did not reflect the true scope or purpose of the funds.
URC said that in 2019, the Government of Uganda borrowed Euros 28,960,100 from Spain and contracted MS Consultrans & Imathia to undertake five components: detailed technical design for track refurbishment between Kampala–Namanve and Namanve–Mukono; preliminary design of the Kampala Multimodal Hub; capacity building for URC staff; supply of 4,605 UIC 54E1 rails for rehabilitation of the Kampala–Mukono line; and refurbishment of the 26.8-kilometre Kampala–Namanve–Mukono line.
The corporation disputed the Shs25 billion figure attributed to training of staff, stating that only a portion of the loan was earmarked for capacity building.
“Of the project total sum, Euros 4,821,000 was for capacity building, translating into Shs 20,843,219,300 (at today’s rate), and not ‘Over 25 billion,’” the statement reads.
URC further clarified that this amount was not set aside exclusively for training its staff.
“The Euros 4,821,000 were not exclusively set aside for training URC staff. Refresher courses for URC staff were just part of the capacity building component,” the statement reads, adding that “under the same component, all funds for the contractor’s operations while in Uganda, for the 3 years, were drawn from this component budget, including paying their staff (Ugandan) and experts, among others.”
The corporation also stressed that it never directly handled the money.
“All project funds were sent directly to the contractor in Spain, and no funds were directly disbursed to URC for this project. Therefore, no spend was made at source by URC for the project,” the statement reads.
“Therefore, although these funds have been presented as having been spent exclusively on training URC staff, they were not,” URC said.