HOUSING: Officials in new districts in lockdown crisis

Sleep Where You Work, MoLG Tells District Officials

Soroti, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Director in charge Local Governments Inspections at the Ministry of Local Government, John Genda Walala has asked local government officials to sleep within the districts they operate in.

Walala made the call while commissioning the new administrative unit at Kapelebyong district headquarters. He said that some new districts have remained remote after getting district status because the staff operate from other districts that are already established with good social amenities.

Kapelebyong, which was carved out of Amuria in July 2018 has majorityof its  staff operating from Amuria and Soroti towns daily. Some of the staff use vehicles attached to their offices while others use personal means to reach the district.

According to Walala, the mindset of staff in local governments needs to change to enable new administrative units develop and attract social amenities desired by all.

Nasser Mukiibi, the Chief Administrative Officer of Kapelebyong says that whereas staff would love to stay within the district, the area lacks rentals to accommodate staff. He says that by the time they started Kapelebyong district in 2018, the trading centre which hosts the district had only 15 commercial buildings which he notes didn’t have sanitary facilities.

Francis Akorikin, the district chairperson of Kapelebyong says there is need for policy change on issues of district staff accommodation. He notes that whereas it is serious challenge that impacts on the output of staff in the district, there’s no legal framework to force staff to reside within the district.

Except for Soroti, a number of staff working in other district across Teso operate from other districts. Most of the staff reside within Soroti city but drive daily to their duty stations.

Augustine Odeke, a resident of Kapelebyong town council says that much as the place may not have standard accommodation for the officers in the district, some people have constructed and still continue to construct good houses. “The problem with those officers is attitude,”he said. “They despise us here as villagers and want to move from Amuria or Soroti daily. When you go those offices in the morning, most of the staff arrive for work past 9:00am and several absentee. Government should put a policy where all staff stay in places they are employed in.”

Except for health workers, teachers and junior security officers, government doesn’t accommodate civil servants at their duty stations.

With the recent restrictions on inter- district movements to contain the spread of COVID-19, many borders were kept busy by district officials operating outside their duty stations.

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