Monitoring of Local Gov’ts Lacking-MPs

Inspection and monitoring of service delivery at local government level remains wanting, according to a section of Members of Parliament on the Budget Committee.

Mawogola North County MP, Hon. Shartsi Musherure queried the value for money for the monitoring component during an interface with the Chairperson of the Committee on Local Government, Hon. Godfrey Onzima.
“We allocate money but we do not see service delivery. As MPs, we have to make our own spot checks and we find that services are not being delivered and people are absent,” Musherure said.

She added that allocation efficiency of the budget needs are the most important aspects that ought to be catered for.

Hon. Lulume Bayigga (L) makes his point during the committee sitting

Hon. Michael Lulume (DP, Buikwe County South) said the functions of inspection and monitoring in the Ministry of Local Government do not conform to the actual services provided to Ugandans.

He cited monitoring of health care and education service delivery, which are not accounted for to financial management standards and supporting revenue mobilization.
“Many MPs have told us that many of these lower health centres are not supervised and that MPs on the Health Committee are the ones doing the inspection. How can we address this concern?” Lulume asked.

According to budget estimates for the Ministry of Local Government for Financial Year 2023/2024, the component has allocated Shs4 billion.

Lulume also tasked the Local Government Committee to present information on the number of parishes in Uganda for effective monitoring and implementation of the Parish Development Model.
“Various centres give us different numbers. We may even have ghost parishes and this committee [Local Government] is the only one which can help us to scrutinize this data and furnish Parliament,” Lulume Bayigga noted.

Hon. Gorreth Namugga (NUP, Mawogola County South) called for investigations into the creation of new administrative units in different local governments that have not been approved.
“I heard the Minister for Local Government making a strong commitment that local governments should not form new administrative units, but in Sembabule, we are creating sub-counties and villages,” Namugga said.