President Yoweri Museveni has commended the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts on Local Government for its well and elaborate researched findings on the Accounting Officers of District Local Governments and Municipal Councils countrywide on the irregularities of service delivery to the public.<\/p>\n
The President made the remarks yesterday at State House, Entebbe while receiving the report from the Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Okumu Ronald Reagan, who is also Aswa County MP in Gulu District.<\/p>\n
The Committee made its findings during the execution of its mandate while considering the Auditor General\u2019s Report for the 2016\/2017 Financial Year.<\/p>\n
The Committee says that a number of recurring issues have continued to hinder service delivery in Local Governments for which the Committee has sought proposals and practical solutions as a way forward regarding issues in service delivery irregularities.<\/p>\n
The committee areas of concern were related\u00a0 to the dwindling portion of the national\u00a0 budget allocated\u00a0 to local governments, sources of revenue for local governments and the impact of creating\u00a0 town Councils in the viability\u00a0 of some districts, non performing accounting officers, theft through electronic money transfers from the ministry of finance,\u00a0 planning and economic development to someone local governments as cited in the\u00a0 districts of Kiruhura and Apac, central\u00a0 government ministries setting standards for service delivery\u00a0 in local governments to achieve the\u00a0 set standards like some ministries\u00a0 have set\u00a0 an example namely the ministries\u00a0 of Education and Sports, health, water among others.<\/p>\n
The meeting was attended by First Lady Janet Kataha Museveni and the Minister of education and Sports, the Minister of Finance,planning and economic development\u00a0 Matia Kasaija , the Minister of Local government Tom Butime, various government\u00a0 permanent secretaries among others.<\/p>\n
On receiving report, president Museveni called upon the leaders to emulate the NRA\/NRM doctrine of priotising on scarce resources and manpower as the government has managed to build the infrastructure of roads, electricity, education and healthy sectors, defense among others.<\/p>\n
“You people you should be able to listen and to learn the experience of NRM.\u00a0 it’s an illusion to be everywhere to do everything at ago without priotisation.”, he said.<\/p>\n
He urged\u00a0 Ugandans\u00a0 to emphasize\u00a0 the issue\u00a0 of managing\u00a0 scarce resources,\u00a0 economising\u00a0 manpower, to ensure\u00a0 the little resources are not stolen and encourage\u00a0 tax points on the\u00a0 population through\u00a0 consumer taxes not local governments\u00a0 to tax the poor population.<\/p>\n
On projects planning and construction, the President appealed\u00a0 to parliament\u00a0 to support\u00a0 him on comparable salary increment for scientists like in other countries.<\/p>\n
“Somebody\u00a0 who can do a good job should\u00a0 be paid well. Focus\u00a0 on this crucial point is needed” , he said.<\/p>\n
The President also\u00a0 concurred with committee recommendation\u00a0 the the local\u00a0 governments policy\u00a0 decentralization of 1993 should\u00a0 be amended.<\/p>\n
He called upon community\u00a0 Leaders to sensitise\u00a0 the communities\u00a0 about hygiene and sanitation, emphasize immunisation campaign against\u00a0 the thirteen\u00a0 killers diseases\u00a0 against\u00a0 children,\u00a0 safe water, anti malaria control.<\/p>\n
The President supported the of idea for the creation\u00a0 of OWC in 2013 reasoning that a lot of resources\u00a0 had been mismanaged by the NAADS coordinators and the government has managed\u00a0 to sink about shillings 1.1trillion in total into national livelihood programs, which\u00a0 has given\u00a0 the population a financial ray of hope in socio economic\u00a0 development.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataha Museveni raised\u00a0 her\u00a0 concern\u00a0 that with her experience as former\u00a0 Minister incharge of Karamoja\u00a0 Affairs believes that local governments\u00a0 can not\u00a0 do a good job. She called upon the central government and\u00a0 local\u00a0 governments\u00a0 to harmonize and participate in implementation\u00a0 of government projects.<\/p>\n
The Minister of local government Tom\u00a0 Butime and the Minister of finance, planning and economic development Matia Kasaija concurrently\u00a0 agreed on enforcement on accountability for improved\u00a0 service delivery by both ministries.<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0 report,\u00a0 the chairperson of the committee\u00a0 Okumu Ronald Reagan said, ” the issues\u00a0 to do with accountability\u00a0 and auditing\u00a0 for public\u00a0 funds should\u00a0 not be involved mixed up with politics.”<\/p>\n
The Commmittee\u00a0 looks\u00a0 forward to have\u00a0 a workable\u00a0 solution\u00a0 to the irregularities of public\u00a0 funds in local governments.<\/p>\n
Elaborating on the status\u00a0 of ministry\u00a0 of health and drugs supplies, it was revealed\u00a0 that at times drugs reach expiry\u00a0 date before consumption, other national\u00a0 drugs\u00a0 are found on market\u00a0 in neighboring\u00a0 countries like\u00a0 the\u00a0 DRC, Burundi,\u00a0 which\u00a0 the President reacted\u00a0 to that there\u00a0 must\u00a0 be proper coding\u00a0 of drugs\u00a0 right from\u00a0 the initial\u00a0 center\u00a0 of distribution and copied\u00a0 for record purpose.<\/p>\n
He added\u00a0 that\u00a0 the state of ministry of education\u00a0 and Sports service delivery is appalling countrywide and called for total overhaul in the ministry.<\/p>\n
The committee\u00a0 also bashed the ministry Labour,\u00a0 gender,\u00a0 youth and women affairs for\u00a0 not supporting Youth livelihood\u00a0 programs fully though it was recommended\u00a0 that women livelihood programs received better\u00a0 attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Yoweri Museveni has commended the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts on Local Government for its well and elaborate researched findings on the Accounting Officers of District Local Governments and Municipal Councils countrywide on the irregularities of service delivery to the public. The President made the remarks yesterday at State House, Entebbe while receiving the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":6389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-6388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n