By KT Reporter
Luwero district council has approved a budget of 100.1 billion shillings for the financial year 2025/26.
On Thursday, Isaac Wampamba, the Luwero District Secretary for Finance, tabled a budget of 100,149,923,000 shillings before the council for approval.
Wampamba said that 6.5 billion shillings will be raised from local revenue, 500 million shillings are expected from donations, and 93.1 billion shillings will be from central government transfers.
In his motion, Wampamba explained that the emphasis of the budget will be given to the education sector, where 53.5% of the entire budget will go, followed by health services at 16.9%, Production at 4.2 %, Roads and Engineering 2.6% and Water and Sanitation allocated only 1.2% of the entire budget.
However, Wampamba said that shillings 58.1 billion (58%) of the entire budget will be spent on paying salaries and shillings 30.1 billion (30%) of the budget for catering non-wages. Wampamba said that only shillings 11.7 billion (12%) will be spent on development activities.
Wampamba further noted that shillings 6.1 out of 11.7 billion will be used to construct district headquarters, and another one billion shillings to pay for road works, among other development activities. The councillors unanimously agreed to pass the budget with minor amendments.
Wampamba later said that the councillors had no power to amend most items since the funds are conditional grants.
Wampamba said the district budget for salaries grew significantly since President Yoweri Museveni increased salaries for science teachers, medical workers, and related fields, but a slight allocation was added for development activities.
Wampamba expressed disappointment that little funds are allocated to development activities, but blamed this on the central government.
Hussein Kato, the District Councillor for Bombo town council, said that even though there were budget lines that had unconditional grants, the councillors couldn’t scrutinise such items and alter them to suit people’s interests due to a lack of ample time.
Kato also questioned why civil servants who recently got a salary increment also pick huge sums of money from non-wage items.
He said that civil servants draw a huge amount of money for fuel allowances, yet they don’t go to the field for monitoring of government projects, but all this goes unchecked by councillors.
Erastus Kibirango, the LCV Chairman of Luwero district, said that it’s by design of the government to spend more on civil servants than service delivery, and the Ministry of Finance should address it.
Kibirango said that although the civil servants are needed to offer services, it’s unfair for them to take a bigger budget than the actual development.
Solomon Mubiru, a resident in Luwero town, said the approved budget is a mockery to the residents since it doesn’t seek to improve service delivery but enrich technical staff.
The Luwero District budget has increased from 91.6 billion shillings in 2024/25 to 100.1 billion shillings in 2025/26 financial year-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
