MANIFESTO WEEK! Local Government Ministry to bring services closer to the people in next 5 years

The Ministry of Local Government says the ministry will focus on bringing services closer to the people in the new government.

This, they says follows the creation of new administrative unit but according to Jenigher Namuyangu, the State Minister in charge of Local Government, the next manifesto will ensure that these are fully operationalized by providing Human and Financial Resources. She says that the Ministry will further ensure that the working environment is improved through Construction or Renovation of LG Offices.

Other focus areas in the 2021-2026 manifesto are:

Capacity building of Councilors

She says the Local Government Councils have always registered above 87% leadership turnover after every General Elections. This, she says, means that majority of the members of Council are new people with little or no knowledge and experience in running public affairs and exercising the mandate of their respective positions as required by the law. As a way forward, she says the Ministry is planning to build the capacity of the new Councilors to enable effective delivery of decentralized services.

“The capacity building will be done through training and availing them with relevant referenced materials,” she says.

Strengthening Transparency and Accountability

Namuyangu says Uganda is dedicated to ensure Transparency and Accountability in service delivery. In this next plan period, she says, the Ministry will contribute to this agenda through conducting regular Monitoring and Supervision of Local Governments; Enhancing the Capacity of Local Government Public Accounts Committees and District Service Committees through mentoring and guiding; Engagements with stakeholders and civil society organization and proving feedback; and sharing of achievements and challenges through Quarterly meeting of Accounting Officers and District Chairpersons.

Local Economic Development

In a bid to promote Local Economic Development approach aimed at stimulating production, promotion of public and private investments as well as widening their resource envelope, Namuyangu says the Ministry  Effective new manifesto period will focus on  awareness creation and mind set change across DLGs, operationalization of the LED Policy, establishment of the necessary institutional arrangements, developing capacity of DLG technical staff through training in areas of  Economic Profiles development, publicizing of opportunities in their localities, implementation and  management of Industrial Hubs, implementation of the Public Private Partnership as well as strengthening monitoring and support supervision of all LED initiatives.

Physical Planning

Namuyangu says Uganda was declared a Planning area, by the National Physical Planning Policy. However, she says, resources to carry out this function in the LGs is inadequate given the state of dwindling Local Revenue and Conditional Central Government Transfers. In the new Manifesto Period, she reveals, the Ministry will provide Resources under DDEG to execute this task.

LG Staff Training at Civil Service College

Namuyangu says some LG Staff lack necessary skills to execute their mandates.  To address this skills gap, working with MoPS, she says her Ministry will identify skill gaps in LGs, and ensure that they access training from the Civil Service College.

Revamping the functions of Parish Chief

In line with this, Government recommended a Parish to be focus of development. Implicitly, this rises the mandates of Parish Chiefs beyond the traditional role of revenue collection. This will entail facilitation of Parish chiefs in routine parish data collection, development of Parish Plans, and monitoring all services delivered in the Parish. In the new Manifesto Period, the Ministry will strengthen the   Parish level to cater for the added responsibilities for Parish Model Implementation.

Surveying and Titling of land

Namuyangu says the Ministry has witnessed a nationwide encroachment of Land where Government Facilities are located. To curb this practice, she says some funding under Discretionary Development Equalization Grant (DDEG) has been provided to facilitate the process of surveying and titling of Land where Local Governments Offices, Schools, Health Centers are located.

In the past 5 years, Namuyangu says the ministry was faced with a number of challenges.

Inadequate staffing of Local Governments. Namuyangu says the absence of Critical Staff in the LGs, to deliver decentralised services remain a key challenge, largely attributed to inadequate wage bill for Staff Recruitment. Currently, the average staffing levels stand at 56% and 51% for District and Municipal Councils respectively.

 Local Governments’ Administrative Infrastructure   Constraints. She adds, a number of Local Governments have dilapidated office blocks. Due to dwindling Local Resources, LGs are unable to address the office accommodation challenge.

Induction of elected LG Leaders. Government recently conducted election of LG political Leaders. However, Namuyangu says most of these are not aware of running Public Offices. Therefore, she says the Ministry needs UGX 17bn to carry out Induction of Local Government Leaders.

Monitoring Government Programes at LG level. She says the LG leaders face a challenge of monitoring Government programs due to lack of Transport. The categories affected, she says are: Vehicles for City and Municipal Councils Mayors, as well as Chief Administrative Officers and Town Clerks.

Settlement of Domestic Arrears- UGX 36 Bn

Namuyangu says the Ministry had accumulated arrears totaling to shs 36Bn due to inadequate budget provision. These, she says, are mainly arrears on VAT, counterpart for Projects and outstanding payment for Contractors. She adds that delayed payments  has resulted in Court cases leading to Court awards, thus affecting the Ministry MTEF Ceilings and consequently impacting negatively on service delivery.

Operationalization of new administrative Units

Since, FY 2016/17 when new administrative units were created, they have never received operational funds, NAmuyangu says adding that this is a big challenge to Government. They are 356 New Town Councils and 377 new Sub counties. 

“We need a minimum of UGX 110.4Bn,” she says.

However, with all these challenges, Namuyangu says her ministry registered 77% 2016-2021 manifesto implementation.