Africa-Press – Uganda. Nwoya District taskforce has declined to approve a budget breakdown for the Covid-19 response citing irregularity in budgeting.
In July, the Ministry of Local Government gave Shs198 million to Nwoya to assist in the fight against Covid-19 .
Of this, Village Health Teams (VHTs) were to be allocated Shs48.4 million, surveillance Shs90 million, taskforce allowance Shs37.5 million, and vehicle maintenance Shs22.5 million.
But a budget draft presented before the district taskforce for approval on Friday showed that more than 50 percent of the budget had been allocated for fuel and drivers’ allowance.
During the meeting, the taskforce chairperson, also Nwoya Resident District Commissioner, Ms Agnes Akello Ebong, questioned why the social mobilisation committee was allocated Shs22.8 million, home-based care allocated Shs23 million, while case management was only allocated Shs8.8 million.
The budget estimate was reportedly done by the Nwoya District Health Officer, Dr Jennet Oola.
In the estimates, the surveillance committee got Shs33.2 million, sub-county taskforce allowance was Shs24.3 million, village taskforce Shs12.1 million, among others.
When asked to explain the discrepancies, Mr Isaac Okello, the district assistant DHO in charge of maternal child health, said he was not aware of the changes in the budget since he was not involved.
“Unfortunately, I was away and just received the notification on email sent by Dr Oola to present in just less than 24 hours ago, so I can’t explain it,” Mr Okello said.
His response, however, prompted the taskforce to discard the budget and tasked the DHO’s office to revise and present the budget when they are ready to explain it.
Ms Ebong gave the office until next week to harmonise the budget and present it before the committee for approval.
“In fact I am going to write to government about this. It is a direct move to sabotage government programmes of fighting Covid-19,” she said.
Nwoya District vice chairman Kenneth Odong said the budget was drafted before government released the fund.
“I personally saw this same draft budget in July 2021 before the government fund was released and it is not in line with the money disbursed,” Mr Odong said.
Mr Odong blamed the committee for coming up with such a budget yet there was already a clear guideline on how the money should be used from the ministry.
In the 2020/2021 Financial Year, Nwoya received Shs150 million for Covid-19 first wave response and similar issues nearly divided the taskforce.
Mr John Paul Onyee, the district principal secretary, who represented the chief administrative officer, said the issue would be worked on as soon as possible.
