The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Kampala Central Executive Committee (CEC) has finally tabled quarterly reports for the financial year 2022/2023 before the Council, just two weeks before the end of the fiscal year.
The reports were presented by Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura, following months of demands from the Council, which raised concerns about the relevance of the reports so close to the year-end.
According to the Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA Act 2020, as amended, the CEC, led by the Lord Mayor, is required to present quarterly reports to the Council to ensure accountability for the authority’s activities in individual directorates.
Section 14 B of the Act grants the CEC the mandate to “monitor sector performance and report to the Council,” while Section 16 states that the Council must make recommendations quarterly and annual work plans of directorates and report to the Council.
However, since the beginning of the financial year, the Council had not received any reports from the CEC, limiting their ability to hold the technical staff accountable for the programs they were tasked with implementing. The CEC, on the other hand, denied any wrongdoing and shifted the blame to the KCCA Directors, who were allegedly reluctant to report to the CEC for consideration and subsequent tabling before the Council.
The Deputy Lord Mayor informed the Council that they had consistently demanded reports from the technical officials in vain. She explained that the technical wing had provided the CEC with a list of activities to be carried out by KCCA, but they were unable to present them as proper reports before the Council. The Deputy Speaker, Nasur Masaba, urged the CEC to take full responsibility for the matter and promptly report to the Council on the response of the technical wing regarding the quarterly reports.
The tabled reports were adopted by the Council and forwarded to the respective Committees, although concerns were raised about how the members would effectively scrutinize the reports and provide recommendations with less than 10 days remaining in the financial year. Notably, no representative from the technical wing was present to explain why the reports had not been made available to the CEC and subsequently to the Council for scrutiny and discussion.
Moving forward, the Council resolved that the technical wing should submit reports to the CEC within three weeks after the end of each quarter, and the CEC should use one week to analyze the reports and present them before the Council. This would allow the Council to debate the reports one month after the end of each quarter. The financial year consists of three-month quarters, starting on the first of June.
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