Report Exposes Chaos in Multi-Billion Agriculture Value Chain Development Project (AVCDP)
Fresh trouble is brewing inside Uganda’s agriculture sector after the Auditor General put the multi-billion Agriculture Value Chain Development Project (AVCDP) under intense scrutiny over delayed contracts, stalled construction works, idle equipment, procurement failures and massive funding gaps that threaten the success of one of government’s flagship poverty reduction programmes.
The explosive findings are contained in the Auditor General’s December 2025 report examining the implementation of the Agriculture Value Chain Development Programme under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, supported by the African Development Bank.
The project, which was rolled out as a major intervention to modernize Uganda’s agriculture sector, was designed to reduce poverty, increase farmer incomes, strengthen food security and improve climate resilience through commercial agriculture practices, infrastructure development and market access.
The programme was also aligned to Uganda’s Vision 2040 and National Development Plan II and focused on improving the rice, maize and dairy/beef value chains through production enhancement, infrastructure development, market facilitation and regulatory reforms.
Government had promised that the project would benefit over 300,000 households, including female-headed homes, by improving agricultural productivity and supporting sustainable natural resource management in irrigation catchment areas.
However, despite the ambitious promises and billions injected into the programme, the Auditor General’s report now reveals alarming weaknesses in implementation, planning, contract management and asset supervision.
The report shows that during the financial year 2024/2025 alone, the project planned procurements worth a staggering UGX42.21 billion.
But shockingly, contracts worth only UGX34.95 billion were eventually awarded, representing an implementation rate of just 83 percent.
Even more alarming, out of the awarded contracts, only UGX2.33 billion worth of contracts had been completed by the time of the audit.
This represented a completion rate of merely 7 percent, exposing serious implementation bottlenecks within the project management structure.
The Auditor General further uncovered that one contract worth UGX190 million suffered significant delays after the contractor failed to supply procured items within the agreed contractual timelines.
The delayed supply raised fresh concerns about procurement supervision, contract enforcement and accountability within the ministry and project management teams entrusted with overseeing the programme.
The report also exposed glaring weaknesses in the management of non-current assets purchased under the project.
According to the audit findings, project managers failed to put in place documented procedures for monitoring the utilization of critical equipment and machinery.
The Auditor General noted that there were no usage logs, downtime reports or performance indicators maintained for expensive project assets including motor vehicles, tractors, ton tipping trailers and loaders.
This means billions worth of government and donor-funded machinery could be operating without proper accountability systems to monitor productivity, usage or maintenance.
The audit further established that management had not developed maintenance schedules for non-current assets valued at a massive UGX2.92 billion.
The absence of maintenance schedules now raises fears that some of the machinery procured under the programme could deteriorate prematurely due to negligence and poor supervision.
The report also paints a worrying picture regarding donor financing and fund disbursement.
According to the Auditor General, the project had expected total donor disbursements amounting to USD79.8 million.
However, by 30th June 2025, only USD57.36 million had actually been disbursed, representing just 74 percent of the expected funding.
This left an undisbursed balance of USD22.44 million hanging in limbo.
The funding gap now raises serious questions about whether implementation delays, procurement weaknesses and low contract completion rates could have contributed to donor disbursement slowdowns.
Out of the USD57.36 million disbursed by donors, the project absorbed USD57.24 million, leaving only USD0.12 million unspent.
On the side of government counterpart funding, the project had expected UGX37.76 billion from the Government of Uganda.
But cumulative disbursements by June 2025 stood at UGX34.81 billion, representing 92.19 percent performance and leaving a funding gap of UGX2.95 billion.
The Auditor General however noted that all government counterpart funds disbursed had been fully absorbed.
The report also examined implementation performance for project activities and established that although some progress had been registered, many critical targets remained unachieved.
Auditors sampled 114 activities worth UGX259.20 billion.
Out of these, only 93 activities worth UGX207.91 billion had their targets fully achieved.
Meanwhile, targets for 21 activities worth UGX51.29 billion had not yet been achieved by the time of the audit.
The findings now raise concerns about whether the project will fully deliver on its intended objectives of improving agricultural commercialization, boosting farmer incomes and strengthening climate resilience.
The Auditor General also uncovered major budgetary shortfalls during the financial year 2024/2025.
The project had an approved budget of UGX105.81 billion.
However, only UGX69.19 billion was actually available for spending, resulting in a staggering shortfall of UGX36.62 billion.
This represented only 65.4 percent budget performance.
The huge financing gap further complicated implementation and potentially contributed to delayed projects, incomplete works and procurement bottlenecks identified in the audit.
Out of the UGX69.19 billion that became available, the project spent UGX68.13 billion, leaving an unspent balance of UGX1.06 billion and an absorption level of 98.5 percent.
But even with the high absorption rate, auditors noted that implementation on the ground remained problematic.
The report further exposed serious delays in construction works under the programme.
Two construction contracts worth UGX16.91 billion were found to be behind schedule, raising fears that some infrastructure projects intended to support agricultural commercialization may not be completed within expected timelines.
The delayed works now threaten delivery of critical infrastructure needed to improve agricultural productivity, storage, market access and value addition for farmers.
The Auditor General also uncovered another troubling scandal involving supplies procured under the project.
According to the report, four supplies worth UGX3.03 billion that had already been procured and delivered to Ministry of Agriculture and National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank stores remained undistributed even three months after delivery.
The supplies were simply sitting idle in stores despite billions already being spent on procurement.
The delayed distribution now raises fresh questions over planning failures, coordination gaps and inefficiencies within the institutions responsible for implementing the project.
Critics say the failure to distribute agricultural supplies on time defeats the entire purpose of interventions meant to improve production and support farmers.
The findings now place pressure squarely on officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries together with project coordinator Emmanuel Muhoozi tasked with supervising the implementation of AVCDP.
The Auditor General’s report paints a disturbing picture of weak supervision, delayed execution, poor contract management, underutilized assets and coordination failures despite the project being marketed as one of Uganda’s most important agricultural transformation programmes.
The Agriculture Value Chain Development Programme had been expected to become a game changer in Uganda’s push toward commercial agriculture by improving production, infrastructure and market access for strategic commodities like rice, maize and dairy.
Instead, the latest audit findings now expose a system struggling with delays, incomplete contracts, idle machinery, stalled construction projects and billions tied up in undelivered impact.
The Auditor General’s findings also reignite wider concerns about Uganda’s recurring problem of delayed government projects, weak contract supervision, poor maintenance culture and procurement inefficiencies that continue to undermine service delivery despite massive public investment.
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