Kabarole, Gulu emerge best performing districts according to report

By Deo Wasswa

Kabarole district local government has emerged the best performing local government followed by Gulu district local government in the previous financial year.

This has been revealed in local government councils score card assessment report released today by Local government Minister, Raphael Magyezi.

The report documented by Advocates coalition for development and environment(ACODE), a public policy think tanks in Eastern and southern Africa, has assessed 35 districts in the four broad areas namely, the context in which local governments operate, political performance of elected leaders, local government financing, and citizen Engagement.

Among districts that have assessed including, Arua, Bududa, Bulisa, Gulu, Hoima, Jinja, Kanungu, Kabale, Kabalore, Kaliro, Kamuli, Lwengo, Luwero, Nwoya, Ntungamo, Nakapiripiriti, Sheema, Mpigi, Wakiso, Moroto, Mbarara, Lira, Mukono and others.

While launching the report, Minister Magyezi has warned chief administrative officers at the district who have developed a habit of returning funds to the treasury at the end of each financial year yet their many projects and programs that left hanging at district level due to lack of finances.

He said almost each financial year 90 billion is returned by CAOs to the treasury.

The findings further revealed that performance of the district councils has improved from 51 points in the financial year 2016/17 to 62 points in the year 2018/18.

The performance of the chairpersons has also improved from 62 to 72 points; the results show that 49% of the district chairpersons assessed scored between 76-100 points compared to 30% in the previous assessment.

While presenting the report, Jonas Mbabazi, project manager at ACODE noted that despite the good performance exhibited, the were number of factors affecting the performance of local government councils especially in accountability to citizens, monitoring service delivery, functioning of committees of council and statuary bodies and contact with the electorates and these are, Conflicts in local governments, lack of substantive clerks to district councils, Dynamics surrounding local government financing, in adequate capacities of political actors structures of local governments and staff to deliver on their mandate among others.