Josephine Maseruka
3 December 2008
Kampala — DONORS have asked the Government not to create new districts until the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) is revised.
They also want it to establish the number of districts which Uganda can sustain. The donors said the PEAP for the period 2004-2007 expressed the concern that "districts have been created without systematic assessment of their affordability" and that the process should be halted.
In spite of the commitment, the donors argued, 24 new districts had been created since 2004, bringing the total to 80 districts. The number could go up given the many demands for districts across the country.
The donors said the decline in money transfers from the central to local governments was further compromising their capacity to deliver.
The donors made the remarks in an eight-page paper, presented by their umbrella organisation, the Decentralisation Development Partner Group in Uganda, to the annual decentralisation review meeting at Hotel Africana. The paper was read by Synmod, the UNDP deputy country representative.
It attracted over 200 participants who included permanent secretaries, local council leaders and accounting officers, MPs, ambassadors, resident district commissioners, UN representatives and ministry officials.
Addressing the workshop, Hope Mwesigye, the local government state minister, said decentralisation was dear to the ruling NRM programmes.
Her ministry, she noted, has to find ways of strengthening local governments to ensure good governance and increasing incomes.
She assured local council leaders that the scrapping of graduated tax was a blessing because the Government had instead introduced the local hotel tax and service taxes which were expected to raise sh70b this year. The taxes took effect in July.
New districts had complained that the Local Hotel Tax would not benefit them since they have no hotels.
An official, Tom Matte, said the major challenge in local governments is the dismal locally-generated revenue coupled with weak coordination across ministries.
The participants were concerned about redundancy among the youth following the abolition of graduated tax.
They called for a responsibility tax on all people above 18 years to keep the youth from drugs and alcohol.
Mwesigye, however, said such a tax was unnecessary because the Prosperity-for-All programme would cater for the redundant youth.
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