Nakaseke staff walk to work after failing to repair cars

Nakaseke, Ugana | THE INDEPENDENT | The failure by Nakaseke district to repair its vehicles has forced staff to walk to work. The most affected are staff in Works, Technical, Natural Resources, Finance, and Health departments. The LC 5 Chairperson, Ignatius Koomu is equally affected.

Some of the vehicles grounded are registrations number LG 0002 69, LG 0029 69, and LG 0004 86 among others. Benjamin Makanga, the Nakaseke District Works Secretary, says that the affected vehicles were donated by the government while others were bought from local revenue over ten years ago.

Makanga says that some vehicles have become too old while others have multiple mechanical failures, which require huge sums of money for repairs. Makanga says that the vehicles have been abandoned in garages, pump fuel stations, Nakaseke hospital, and Police stations due to the lack of funds for repairing them. He says that they need over Shillings 20 million to repair each vehicle, which they are unable to raise and have resolved to sell off the vehicles.

Ignatius Koomu, the LC 5 Chairman of Nakaseke district, says that the absence of enough functioning vehicles has retarded the monitoring of government programmes. Koomu says that the district has been repairing the cars using money from local revenue but the district is facing shortfalls.

Some staff have resorted to hiring motorcycles while others walk to monitor government projects. Nakaseke district has since passed a resolution to buy a new vehicle for the LC 5 Chairman worth Shillings 150 million dependent on the availability of local revenue in the financial year 2022/23.

Currently, Koomu uses one of the cars allocated for the COVID-19 response till the district buys him another. In December 2021, the Minister of Health, Jane Ruth Aceng warned politicians against taking over the cars meant for surveillance but authorities in Nakaseke, say they had no alternative for the LC 5 Chairperson.

****

URN