In their submissions during the Nyendo-Mukungwe Division Budget Conference that is planning for the 2024/25 financial year, the L.C II chairpersons decried that their areas no longer receive their statutory share of the local revenues, which greatly affects their operations and service delivery.
The chairpersons of wards in Masaka City Council are calling for a review of the policy on the expenditure of local revenue collections, to empower lower local councils to accomplish services.
They are demanding that the government directly transfers 10 and 25 percent of the local revenue shares back to parish and village councils respectively, to enable them to address their local challenges in time.
In their submissions during the Nyendo-Mukungwe Division Budget Conference that is planning for the 2024/25 financial year, the chairpersons decried that their areas no longer receive their statutory share of the local revenues, which greatly affects their operations and service delivery.
Gonzaga Kisirinya, the LCII Chairperson for Nyendo ward, argues that the lower councils have become useless because they can no longer afford to solve any of the problems affecting the communities.
He says the higher local governments of; divisions and city councils are detached from the local communities thereby not attending to the pertinent local challenges in time.
Kisirinya argues that the lower council leaders are currently stuck with impassible community access pathways, poorly maintained water sources, and uncollected garbage among other social amenities that could be addressed if they continued to receive their share of the local revenues.
The Local Government Act provides that 25% of the locally generated revenue be remitted back to the lower councils from where it is planned for and accordingly spent based on the community priorities.
However, the policy suffered a structural miscarriage in 2015 after the amendment in the Public Finance Management Act, which now demands that all revenues collected; be directly transmitted to the central consolidated account, from where it is managed.
Kisirinya has called upon the leaders of the higher local governments including technocrats to join them in pressing the government to reconsider its policy and re-empower the lower local councils as one of the strategies to improve service delivery.
(Luganda Audio)
//Cue in: “ekyange kizze…..
Cue out; ….nga situnafuna ssente.”//
Salim Mayanja and Mpiima Michael, the LCII Chairperson for Samaliya and Kidda wards respectively, also observed that the government is yet to commit itself to the idea of decentralization if the local councils are not fully empowered to fulfil their responsibilities to the satisfaction of the communities.
Mayanja says that as local council leaders, they find it hard to mobilize communities to meet their tax obligations, due to the lack of tangible direct benefits in their communities.
//Cue in: “Chairperson wa Samaliya…..
Cue out: ….ate mutuwa ffe.”//
Michael Muliddwa Nakumusana, the Nyendo-Mukungwe division Chairperson has acknowledged the frustrations of the ward chairpersons, saying he is also yearning for reforms that can improve service delivery in local governments.
He also criticizes the policy that requires them to remit all the revenues to the consolidated account, arguing that the money also takes longer to return to local governments and is often reduced, which affects service delivery.
