Africa-Press – Uganda. Gulu District Council has directed the chief administrative officer, Mr Geoffrey Okaka, to hire a service commission from another district to recruit staff into vacant positions to utilise at least Shs3 billion that could be returned to the Treasury.
The term of Gulu District service commission expired in January.
In the absence of the commission, the district has been unable to recruit personnel to fill up key positions in the district administration.
Before dissolving last week, the council tasked Mr Okaka to allocate resources to hire the service commission from another district to conduct the exercise.
Mr Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, the outgoing Gulu District chairperson, said unless such action is taken, the district risks losing billions, adding that certain activities planned in the district budget cannot be implemented without personnel.
“In case Gulu fails to recruit by the end of the financial year, the district will lose billions that will have to be returned to theTreasury, meaning that we will have done a disservice to the community,” Mr Ojara said.
The wage analysis documents this newspaper accessed showed that of the Shs17.97 billion that the district approved, only Shs12.01 billion had been utilised by the end of April.
The document also indicated that the district had planned to use Shs3.37 billion between May and June but failed due to lack of personnel.
Even if the positions were occupied, the document showed that the district had already earmarked Shs2.56 billion to be returned to the Treasury.
In an interview, Mr Okaka said: “By the time the commission ceased functioning, applicants had already been shortlisted.”
Some positions include the district health officer and district engineer. Other departments in demand of staff include works, planning, trade commerce, industry and local economic development department.
Gulu District needs more than 40 personnel.
Mr Okaka said they were considering consulting their counterparts in East Acholi after learning that the terms of the district service commission in Omoro, Nwoya and Amuru of West Acholi were equally expiring.
Last Friday, Mr Douglas Peter Okello, the Omoro District chairperson, said the term of the service commission expires on May 17 (today).
Since it broke away from Gulu, Omoro has been operating without a substantive chief financial officer, district health officer, as well as the district engineer.
“This affects us because we are supposed to advertise for the recruitment of senior staff like chief financial officer, district health officer, engineer, among others,” Mr Okello said.
BACKGROUND
Meanwhile, the term of Nwoya District service commission expired in September 2020 whereas that of Amuru District will expire on May 29.
Daily Monitor learnt that the district hired the Omoro District commission services in April in order to conduct recruitment, which was later on blocked by the Office of the Inspectorate of Government over irregularities.
Adhuha, which are Muslim religious holidays were inconsistent with several provisions of the Constitution such as 7, 20, 21 (1), (2),( 3), 24, 29, 37, 43 and 44.
Mr Mandy had been accused of having in 2013, declared that the national examinations would be conducted on Idd al-Adhuha.
The judgment of the court came merely one day for the Muslim community to celebrate this year’s Idd-ul-Fitr.
The justices awarded costs of the petition to the duo petitioners but declined to award them damages on account that they did not adduce evidence to show that they suffered any unique inconvenience due to the acts of Uneb.
