Kampala city got a new minister during the recent reshuffle by the president that saw many ministers leaving their positions to better ones and other being left entirely out with the new minister of the city being Hon. Betty Amongi.
Amongi who took over the office this week from Beti Olive Kamya and vowed to face many challenges ahead of her.
This comes at a time when there are a number of issues that need to be worked on with immediate effect. Some of these include absenteeism of the technical staff in council meetings and failure to include Councillor’s input into the budget framework.
On Thursday, the Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago petitioned Minister Amongi seeking her to draw her attention to a number of unresolved issues which need immediate attention.
“The former minister had made a commitment that they will not submit the budget to parliament until it has been considered and adopted by the authority in accordance to section 49 in the KCCA act because we are the one to determine the priorities,” Lukwago said.
He also said that technical staff have snubbed the council meetings on several occasions.
“There is a boycott of the meetings by the technical people even if we are to have elections today, we would not have anyone to take the record because the clerks have also boycotted,” he said.
He noted technical people right from the the office of the executive director have snubbed the meetings and yet there is a lot that require attention specifically the budget.
The acting deputy executive director KCCA, Sam Sserunkuma said the absence of the technical team is justified. He said the acting executive director of KCCA was supposed to get authority which helps him to act in that capacity from the minister of Kampala which he has not yet obtained.