Africa-Press – Uganda. Ntungamo Local Government has declared Shs6.8billion worth of unused funds to the State treasury after failing to utilize the moneys in the ended FY2021/2022.
According to a June 29 letter signed by the district’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Mr Nasser Mukiibi, Shs5.2billion was budgeted for development expenditure while the rest was for the wage bill.
“Most of the development expenditure money was returned because of incomplete government projects like schools and health units,” Mr Mukiibi said.
According to him, government’s bureaucratic tendencies in releasing the funds, mainly due to vacant political positions, stalled appropriate utilization.
“The money was released close to the deadline of spending in the financial year and we could not rush to spend it simply because we had it,” Mr Mukiibi told Monitor.
This publication understands that wage bill money was not used since Ntungamo lacked a District Service Commission from March 2022 to early May 2022.
Although the CAO has requested the Finance Ministry to reallocate the funds already committed for development, Ntungamo District Finance Secretary Mr Naboth Mpireirwe denounced the move by authorities to return the money to the treasury.
“It’s disastrous. We are crying that we don’t have enough workers and now the money for recruitment is returning. We need to rethink our work methods.” Mr Mpireirwe told Monitor on Monday.
Of Ntungamo’s declared unutilized money Shs867.3million was for agricultural production, Shs1.551biilion for health, Shs 2.803billion for education while Shs78.178million for the unutilized cash limit.
In 2021, Ntungamo announced a Shs48.6billion budget that drew 3% revenue collection locally.
“89% of the central government transfers was realized while only 48% of the expected local revenue was realized,” CAO Mr Mukiibi observed from the district on Monday.
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