The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Luweero, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Luweero district local government is on the spot because of registering a decline in performance across key sectors.
Luweero district ranked 124th out of 144 districts in the Local Government Performance Assessment 2018/19 released last week by Office of the Prime Minister.
The district dropped by 11 points from 65 scored in 2017/18 to 54 points in 2018/19. Other districts that recorded a decline in their performance include Kibaale, Kagadi, Buliisa, Kabale, Ntoroko and Kiryandongo among others.
According to the Assessment, Luweero scored 48% in water performance measures, 50% in health and 51% in educational performance measures. However, the district scored 83% in accountability requirements and 65% in cross cutting issues hence emerged in 124th position.
The Assessment faults Luweero district for noncompliance in submission of reports, failure to respond to audit queries, non-dissemination of information on contracts and lack of supervision among others areas.
Luweero district administration is now facing ire from area Members of Parliament and residents over the decline in performance. Abraham Byandala, the Katikamu North Member of Parliament, says he isn’t surprised with the ranking because of poor service delivery, which is evident in the health and education sectors.
Byandala says the Assessment was a vote of no confidence in both the technical and political leadership in Luweero district.
Lilian Nakate, the Luweero District Woman Member of Parliament, says the Assessment should be an eye opener to the political leadership in the district to conduct close supervision of the technical team to ensure they comply with guidelines and respond to people’s demands.
Nakate faults the district for shoddy road works, something that has affected transportation of farmer’s produce in the rural areas.
John Mutegeki, a resident in Luweero town council faults the district for lack of transparency in contracts awards leading to zero score during the assessment. Mutegeki wants the Office of Prime Minister to take action against the districts that performed badly.
Mustapha Kaggwa, a local leader at Mityebiri Village says they are battling water shortage and he isn’t surprised to see the district scores 48% in water performance measures. Other residents complained of paying Shillings 500,000 as commitment fee for boreholes in vain.
Residents led by George Namugera, the Kakoolo village LC 1 Chairman, said there was also poor service delivery in health centers and they were not shocked of the rankings in the sector. The MPs and residents have pilled pressure on the district leadership to take action against officials in the health, education and water sectors that performed poorly during the assessment.
Godfrey Kuruhiira, the Luweero Chief Administrative Officer was unavailable for comment on the assessment but the LC 5 Chairperson, Ronald Ndawula said that some compliance gaps were due to late financial releases while others appeared because the assessment was done during project implementation.
Ndawula also bragged that the district scored 83% in the accountability requirements, which means no money was embezzled.
The Assessment faults district officials for poor supervision, late submission of plans, failure of departments to respond to internal audit queries, failure to disseminate information on contract awards and lack of support documents for work done.
The health department failed to disseminate sanitation guidelines and issue guidelines on medical waste management to all the health facilities. There were no sanitation facilities planned and/or constructed in the last financial year and there was no prioritization of sub counties which were water stressed among other issues.
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