Africa-Press – Uganda. Various districts, cities and municipalities across the country have passed budgets for the 2022/2023 financial year, with education, infrastructure and health taking the biggest portions.
The budgets, which are pending approval of the ministry of Finance, spell out the cash allocations for the different activities that the local governments will implement in the next financial year that starts on July 1.
Most of the local governments have reduced their budgets as they continue to experience low revenue collections. Leaders attribute this to the collapse of many businesses due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living.
Soroti City passed a budget of Shs20 billion and the mayor, Mr Joshua Edongu, said the areas of priority will be infrastructure, health and staff welfare.
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He said there is a lot of work to do but the resource envelope remains small.
In Alebtong District, a Shs29 billion budget was passed during the council meeting held last Monday.
Mr Kenneth Owaa Omara, the district speaker, said the health department took a lion’s share of Shs3.7 billion followed by Shs700m for education.
Most of the health budget will go towards renovating dilapidated health units.
Mr Omora added that the Shs700 million apportioned to the education department will be used for the construction of Awei and Angetta seed secondary schools.
Another Shs346 million will go towards rehabilitating roads and bridges.
An assessment of districts in West Nile indicates a reduction of the budgets when compared to the current financial year.
A case in point is Koboko Municipality whose budget has had a reduction from Shs17b to Shs14b.
Ms Florence Ajonye, the secretary finance, planning and administration, attributed the development to a decline in revenue projections for next financial year.
“There is also a drop in the local revenue collection from Shs470 million in Financial Year 2021/2022 to Shs409 million for the FY 2021/2022, giving a variation of Shs60 million (7 percent),” Ms Ajonye said.
She said the education department has been allocated a lion’s share of Shs6 billion (41percent), followed by health with Shs7 billion (40 percent) while water has been allocated Shs22m.
The Mayor of Koboko Municipality, Mr Wilson Sanya, said there is a general a ecline in local revenue collection.
“We need to put more effort on enforcement to see an increase in local revenue because this will allow us to have garbage collection done and proper planning of the municipality,” he said.
In Nebbi District, Ms Teddy Mandhawun, the secretary for finance, said Shs14.5b has been allocated for the next financial year.
Education was prioritised with 45 percent allocation. This, according to Ms Mandhawun, is meant to improve the sector’s performance through refurbishing and equipping schools.
However, only 5 percent of the budget has been allocated to the rehabilitation of roads despite public outcry over their poor state.
A resident of Nebbi Town, Ms Joyce Acen, said: “We expected roads to be allocated more funds since they are in a sorry state such as Nebbi-Erussi-Parombo road. The district cannot rely on Unra only to construct better roads yet the district roads are also doing badly.”
Gulu District has approved a Shs 32.9b budget, with the education sector taking a lion’s share.
The district has prioritised education (Shs14.6b), health (Shs6b), production and marketing (Shs1.9b), agro-industrialisation (Shs1.8b), and council business (Shs625m).
Others are; engineering department (Shs1.54b), water (Shs1b), community-based services (Shs499m), and local economic development and planning (Shs129m).
In Tororo, district councillors passed a resolution to have their allowances increased despite the local government registering decline in local revenue collection.
The district registered a revenue shortfall of more than Shs900m out of the planned Shs1.5b for the current financial year
According to the budget estimates presented by the district vice chairperson, Ms Rebecca Akumu, the council have had an increase of their sitting allowances to Shs125,000 from the current Shs64,000.
Ms Akumu said the rise in sitting allowances is as a result of rising cost of living.
For the budget, the directorate of education has been allocated Shs 32.1b, health has Shs16b, administration Shs12b, production Shs4b, works and community based services Shs2b.
The finance department has been allocated Shs381m, Shs385 million has been given to the planning unit, Shs496 million to natural resources, Shs86 million to internal audit and trade, while industry and local development were allocated Shs77m.
In Pallisa, the district council approved a budget of Shs39.5b for the FY 2022/23, with emphasis on improving education sector performance, which has been declining over the last 15 years.
The budget was presented to the council by Mr Clement Opakasi, the secretary for finance, during a meeting chaired by the district speaker, Mr Stephen Mwanika Legesi, last week.
In Budaka, the councillors refused to approve the 2022/2023 financial year budget, citing anomalies. Mr Humprey Ikendeza, the councillor representing people with disabilities, said the councillors’ concerns were that the budget documents were delivered to them late prior to the meeting.
Kisoro District council passed budget estimates of Shs48.2 billion. The education and sports department took a big share of Shs20b, followed by the health department that took Shs14b.
Kabale District on the other hand passed a Shs42.4b budget.
Kakumiro District has seen her budget increase from Shs31b in the current financial year to Shs34.5b, while Kasese has passed a Shs96b budget, with 36.8 percent allocated to education and 23.3 percent for health sector development.
While presenting the estimates for approval before council, Ms Jetress Ithungu, the secretary for finance, planning and administration, who also doubles the district vice chairperson, said Kasese was grappling with low revenue collection.
In Masindi District, the budget has been increased from Shs25b in the current financial year to Shs30.2 billion in the next financial year, with priority given to education which has been allocated Shs11.4 billion.
The secretary for finance and planning, Ms Pamela Nyakato, further explained that the education sector conditional grant for development increased from Shs1.2b to Shs2.6b.
In Kyotera District, Shs39.5b has been passed for the next financial year, with emphasis on education and health.
“Construction of some new seed schools and salaries of the newly recruited teachers has made our budget go up,” Mr Gabriel Rogers Bwayo, the district chief administrative officer, said.
In Masaka City, councillors passed a Shs39 billion budget, with priority given to staff salaries, capacity building, production, health and education, among other items.
Masaka City Mayor Florence Namayanja expressed disappointment that they still receive the same amount money from the central government even when the town was elevated to a city two years ago.
“I ask our legislators to follow up the matter so that Masaka can get some more funds since the city boundaries were expanded and people in all those areas also need good services,” she said.
In Jinja City, the council has passed a budget of Shs44b for the next financial year. The mayor of South Division, Mr Nasser Ashraf, said they are going to focus on environmental conservation and sanitation in the next financial year. “We also plan to support our people’s businesses ,which were affected during Covid-19 pandemic so that they can in return pay taxes,” he said.
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