By KT Reporter
Luwero district leaders have asked the National Planning Authority to advocate for strengthening decentralization if its National Development Plan Four is to achieve its goal.
On Wednesday, the National Planning Authority team consulted with Luwero leaders on National Development Plan Four (NDPIV) which will inform the country’s budgeting processes for the financial year 2025/26.
The goal of NDPIV is to achieve higher household incomes and employment for sustainable socio-economic transformation.
The NDPIV intends to grow the economy ten-fold from the current USD 50 billion as of 2023/24 to USD 500 billion in the next 15 years in a transformative, inclusive and sustainable manner.
However local leaders in Luwero district are sceptical that NDPIV will achieve its goal if the government doesn’t ensure decentralization is implemented as planned and local governments are facilitated to perform their duties.
In 1992, Uganda Introduced a decentralization policy with the main objective of empowering people in decision-making, devolution of power and extending services to the communities. In the Policy, the Central government transfers certain powers to districts and sub-counties.
However, 33 years later, Local government leaders say the government has since abandoned the policy and now centralized all powers leaving them unable to extend services.
George William Ssemivule, the Chairperson of Luwero District Service Commission said currently local governments are crying foul and can do little because all revenue collections are deposited at a special account in the Bank of Uganda where they struggle to seek authority from the Accountant General to utilize it.
Ssemivule said that so often, the Central Government returns little than what was collected and this has affected service delivery in local governments.
Bernard Okello, the Luwero District Human Resource Officer said that most government work is executed through local governments but little funds are disbursed hence affecting service delivery.
Okello explained that currently Luwero district budget stands at 86 billion shillings but 59 billion shillings will be spent on paying staff leaving little funds to extend service delivery to achieve the NDP goal.
In 2023/24, the budget for all Local Governments was only 10% of the National budget.
Patrick Barasa, the Luwero District Chief Finance Officer said that staff in Local Governments only wait for salaries at the end of the month because they have no resources to execute service projects.
Erastus Kibirango the LCV Chairman of Luwero District said that without the government allocating more resources to local government to extend services to local people, there is no way socio-economic transformation will be achieved as per NDPIV.
Other district leaders complained of understaffing in key sectors including tourism and environment that are needed to drive NDPIV. They also cited poor remuneration of staff as another hindrance to the plan.
The Local leaders asked for strengthening local governments through increasing funds to ensure they extend services to local people.
But while speaking to the leaders at the district council hall on Wednesday, Sufian Kabagambe the Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the National Planning Authority said some of the concerns issues will be considered and some are already covered in the NDPIV programme implementation.
Kabagambe said that in the plan, NPA is advocating for improved delivery of decentralized services and balanced regional development.
The NDPIV will be achieved through five strategic objectives that include sustainably increasing production, productivity and value addition in agriculture, minerals, oil, and gas.
Others are Tourism, financial services, enhancing human capital development, supporting the private sector to drive growth, and maintaining strategic sustainable infrastructure.
NDPIV also intends to strengthen good governance, security and the role of the state in development-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
