Africa-Press – Uganda. More than 90 percent of local government councils in Luweero, Nakaseke, and Nakasongola districts are still struggling to grasp the guidelines to conduct business.
While both the district and sub-county councils are mandated to execute the roles of legislation, planning, budgeting and appropriation as guided by the Local Government Act, many councils are still confused on roles.
In Luweero, where more than 90 percent of the district councillors are new, a section accuses the executive and the district technical team of failing to convene council committee meetings, while others claim their attempts to monitor projects are deliberately frustrated.
Mr Erasto Kibirango, the district chairperson, said many councillors are yet to internalise business procedure.
“We recently had a capacity building engagement and I believe that councillors still need that. The council sessions are only scheduled as planned. Councillors should learn to address their grievances through the office of the district speaker and not in corridors,” he told Daily Monitor on Wednesday.
He said ever since they assumed office in May, they have only had one council meeting (in September).
“I believe councillors will soon acquaint themselves with the Local Government Act, including the rules of procedure because many are new in the council business and need time to learn how to conduct it,” Mr Kibirango added .
Ms Rehema Kaaya, a councillor representing the elderly persons, agreed with the district chairperson.
“When you are elected and serve on the council for the first time, things look very different. You always want to act in a direction that you best know, but the council rules and procedures cannot be bent. It is good that we now have induction workshops to guide the new councillors,” she said.
In Nakasongola, the district council speaker, Mr Rogers Bwanga, said they had two inductions for the councillors.
Mr Sam Kigula, the district chairperson, attributed the councillors’ delay to adapt to inadequate resources to enable them organise capacity building training sessions on time.
“For the past three years, the district has been under Foot-and-Mouth disease quarantine, yet we get more than 75 per cent of local revenue from the livestock industry. The cattle quarantine affected our revenue resource envelope,” he said.
Mr John Ssegujja, a civil society activist and trainer, said he has been sensitising and doing capacity enhancement for the district councils.
Efforts
“We have so far sensitised about 120 district councillors from Luweero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola. We discovered that many district councils had new councillors with less experience in handling business. They joined the council with a challenge of fulfilling social contracts and campaign promises. This explains why they are struggling to fulfill their campaign promises,” Mr Ssegujja said.
“A good district councillor should be well versed with the council rules of procedure, articulate and focused while monitoring projects. It is not entirely fulfilling campaign promises such as building and constructing bridges and road,” he added.
Mr Peter Bogere, a trainer at Uganda Project Implementation and Management Centre on October 1 rallied councillors on duties and values in leadership.
