Ministry advises districts, municipalities to halt council sittings

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Local councils across the country have been advised to halt all council activities to close all gaps that could lead to the spread of coronavirus.

The advise was given by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government Ben Kumumanya, at a time that the country is encouraging its citizens to stay home and break the coronavirus chain. Up to 23 people have so far tested positive to the disease which has claimed thousands of lives across the world in recent months.

Despite the threat that the disease presents, several local governments were still holding council meetings under pressure to beat the budget process deadlines. But Kumumanya notes that although the budget is an important element for the smooth running of administrative units, it is rather not a matter of life and death.

He says that maintaining council meetings would be in violation of the set COVID-19 guidelines and an attempt to ‘behave normally in an abnormal situation.”

Kumumanya says that the ministry is currently seeking advice from their ministry of finance counter parts on how best the budgeting process at the local government level should be handled. Although the local government act stipulates that the budget must be tabled in council, Kumumanya says they want to find out whether the budget might be passed without going to council.

This week, the coronavirus pandemic forced Parliament to bend rules of procedure in order to beat the statutory budget deadline. According to the guidelines, the budget Committee work will be handled electronically and the minister is expected to lay the national budget framework paper on April 1.

The Wakiso District Chief Administrative Officer Luke Lokuda notes that he had observed that some local administrative units had insisted on holding their meetings in the race against time so that their figures are captured in the district budget which was due to be laid before the end of this week. He however notes that he has since passed on the information and expects all town clerks and sub county assistant to heed to it.

“We are in a crisis. Service for this year will not stop as we already have a budget. So we will wait for the guidelines of the central government on how to go forward. I know that a solution will be formulated and the budget process will be completed.”

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