Rubirizi officials work in shifts for lack of space

Employees of the eight-year-old Rubirizi District Local Government have resorted to working in shifts with others improvising where to sit in order offer services to people as they continue to grapple with lack of office space.
Rubirizi is one of the five districts carved out of greater Bushenyi in 2010.

The district communications officer, Mr Evarist Muhereza, on Tuesday said: “The office space that is supposed to be occupied by one or two people is used by six people. Some colleagues are forced to stay outside until others are done because they do not have where to sit.”
Rubirizi was established in buildings of the former Bunyaruguru county headquarters built during colonial times. The structures are dilapidated and need refurbishment.
“Our main problem as Rubirizi is lack of a home. The district council hall is very small in that people squeeze during council sessions. The buildings are traditional structures of former Ankole Kingdom,” said Mr Umar Ashaba Kateinama, the district speaker.

Congestion
“In the production department, more than 15 people occupy one office. They have no space for furniture,” Mr Kateinama added.
The Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Nasser Mukiibi, said they are planning to construct a three-storey administration block that will accommodate more than 80 offices, three board rooms and a council hall to effect service delivery in the district.
“There are cases where people have domestic issues and they need privacy. Some officers are inconvenienced when they are forced to move out to give room to the people from the community to be served,’’ said Mr Mukiibi.

The ground breaking for the construction of the Shs3.7b district administration block took place on April 12.
However, it will take four more years to have the building complete.
“Right now, we have three staff occupying a small office space. We have not given new recruits offices because of space constrains. When you approach the district, you will see some old structures that we are trying to renovate for the purposes of accommodating the new staff. We have hope that one day we shall be housed in a more spacious environment,’’ Mr Mukiibi said.

No recruitment
He said they currently cannot recruit staff because they will have nowhere to operate from. The district staffing level is at 54 per cent.
The district chairperson, Mr Sylvester Agubanshongorera, said they had invited the President at the ground breaking so that he can bless construction of the administration block but he did not show up.
“I am very sad because I wanted the commissioning of construction of the administration block to be graced by the President knowing that we could raise money through fundraising. We wanted to call all our sons and friends to come and we collect money but it is saddening that Rubirizi is only remembered during elections,’’ Mr Agubanshongorera lamented.
He added that Rubirizi District will be forced to vote wisely in the next general election because the President has abandoned them.
“So it will be good when you put it in the newspapers, and he (President) will know how he uses us then after he throws us the other side,’’ he added.

Though the government has given the district Shs150 million to kick start the construction and will be adding more Shs300 in the next financial year, Mr Agubanshongorera says if other means of fundraising are not used the project may take 10 years to be complete.
“The government is doing what it can but my only worry is the pace because we want Shs3.7 billion and if we are to depend on Shs300 million every year, it means it will take us 10 years to complete this building,’’ said Mr Agubanshongorera.
He revealed that the office of the district vice chairman is nearly collapsing.

Challenges
The challenges faced in Rubirizi District highlight several problems suffered by many new districts and town councils countrywide which are hampering service delivery.
In November last year, Kyotera District council resolved to return a big number of technical staff back to Rakai District over failure to meet their monthly salaries. The resolution was made after the executive report read by the district chairperson, Mr Patrick Kintu Kisekulo, revealed that many of the workers are likely to miss salaries because the newly created district has no money. In March, Finance minister Matia Kasaija said there is no money to fund the operations of new town councils which the Local Government ministry has created.

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