Africa-Press – Uganda. District leaders have urged the central government to implement a Parliament resolution that urged it to reverse a directive, requiring local governments (LGs) to remit all revenue they collect to the national treasury.
Under their umbrella body, the Uganda Local Governments Association (ULGA), they said the existing regulation is crippling service delivery.
Mr Richard Rwabuhinga, the ULGA president, said whereas Article 191 of the Constitution requires local governments to levy, charge and collect fees and taxes, they do not have the capacity to allocate the collected revenue due to the central government requirement.
“The district of Amuru, for example, collected over and above the projected local revenue and remitted it to the central treasury. Now the district cannot access this money because they are saying it must go through Parliament to seek this approval in a supplementary budget, it is a shame. These little monies that we collect should be left to the LGs to manage,” Mr Rwabuhinga said.
He was speaking at an induction meeting for district chairpersons about the Parish Development Model (PDM).
On September 8, 2021, Parliament adopted a motion, urging the central government to halt the directive requiring local governments to remit all generated revenues to the Consolidated Fund. However, this is yet to be implemented.
Sources of the revenue at local government level include market dues, rent, stamp duty and licensing fees as per Article 191 of the Constitution Section 80(1).
The district chairpersons at the induction meeting concurred with Mr Rwabuhinga, saying failure to manage the revenue at local government level, “certainly cripples service delivery,” arguing that 82 percent of public service delivery countrywide is done by local governments.
Local Government minister Raphael Magyezi promised to follow up on the matter.
During the meeting, the district leaders received implementation guidelines for the recently launched PDM.
Mr Magyezi also promised to hold quarterly meetings with chairpersons and city mayors that will be preceded by a retreat at the National Leadership Institute at Kyankwanzi to reorient local government leaders towards PDM.
“We are scheduling a retreat at Kyankwanzi for RDCs, district chairpersons, chief administrative officers and we shall go through [Parish Development Model]. This one-day induction is not enough,” he said.
President Museveni launched PDM on February 27, in Kibuku District. PDM is geared towards improving household incomes at parish level for better service delivery, among other objectives.
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