The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Mukwaya said some local government officials were inflating project costs and cited an example of Nakasongola where a sub county chief added Shs5 million to the Shs7.5 million that had been requested by a group. The scam was detected by the Ministry staff during verification of the files and the budget was adjusted back to Shs7.5 million.
Some local governments were also reported to be spreading out the funds to cover more groups, which undermines the recipient group’s ability to successfully implement the enterprise. An example was given of some piggery projects that have run out of money for feeds because their budgets were drastically cut.
Mukwaya further noted that some local governments had not prioritised these flagship Programmes as identified in the Presidential 24 directives as “priorities among priorities”.
She called for training of Community Development Officers in the field of project/enterprise appraisal and evaluation to build their capacity in managing the projects.
Bigirimana raised concern about the disjointed monitoring at the districts which is not cognisant of the scarce resources. He advised that district teams need to monitor government programmes jointly to save on time, fuel and avoid community fatigue.
Minister Tom Butime said the concerns were valid as he had experienced some of the issues during mobilisation in his constituency in Kyenjonjo, where the Community Development Officer seemed to have overall powers on which groups benefited from the fund.
“I am a very strong supporter of the women and youth funds and agree that we should take all steps to ensure that they succeed,” Butime said.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Local Government, Ben Kumumanya, commended the feedback and pledged that the YLP and UWEP would henceforth be placed as variables in their inspection to ensure that emerging issues are promptly addressed.
“The principal government programme implementers are the CAOs and Sub county chiefs. We are going to make follow up on the information shared and appropriate administrative action will be taken against any officials implicated in wrong doings,” Kumumanya pledged.
He warned CAOs against abdicating their responsibility over government monies at the district and sub counties, adding that the whip would be swung against the nonperformers.
The excuse of “IFMIS failure” for delayed remittance of funds to beneficiary groups was quashed as the system was confirmed to be working perfectly in all but two districts.
“The CAOs will be held liable for any delayed groups funds,” Kumumanya noted.
It was also mooted that the CAO and their deputies would be allocated to supervise one of the two Programmes for improved results.
The two ministries appreciated the partnership that had been honed during the bilateral meeting and agreed to continue sharing information to strengthen the Programmes implementation.
