Govt seeks Shs51b for new district offices

The Ministry of Local Government is seeking Shs51.2b to erect 332 offices for districts and sub-counties which are operating on verandas and streets, according to the Minister of Local Government, Mr Raphael Magyezi.

Of these, 20 are for districts while 312 for sub-counties.  It will cost an estimated Shs1b and Shs100m to erect every office, respectively.

Mr Magyezi said his ministry needs an urgent Shs10b to start with the construction of 10 offices so that they relocate the10 districts whose office premises were either taken over by the newly created cities or are located within the cities and thus need to move to another location.

July 1, 2020 saw the operationalisation of 10 cities including; Mbale, Soroti, Jinja, Lira, Gulu, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Arua, Masaka, and Hoima, which government had planned to use a bases to transform regions where they are situated and de-congest Kampala Capital City, which is densely populated.

The creation of these cities, whose impact is yet to be felt by citizens, according to experts, rendered their mother districts homeless, adding another administrative burden to the central government who must provide shelter to them at all costs.

“We are expecting the Ministry of Finance to table a supplementary [budget] very soon which shall have these funds incorporated,” he said.

Mr Magyezi added that securing funding for erecting of 10 remaining district offices and the sub-counties will be processed later, “but we need to act on this as soon as possible”.

The operationalisation of the decentralisation policy, which had been projected to be a game-changer in Uganda’s political system, over the years is proving otherwise.

The enactment of the policy in 1993 brought down political power in the hands of people where every district is led by the LC5 chairperson as overall head. The cities and municipalities are led by mayors and the hierarchy breaks down to the village level. 

Decentralisation policy and the government’s gerrymandering paved the way to the creation of more districts, from 16 in 1950s to the current 135, additional 30 municipalities and 10 cities, making Uganda’s administration costly compared to her neighbours.

With an estimated 45 million people, and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $45b, according to the World Bank Group, Uganda has the biggest Parliament with 529 members compared to 349 of her immediate neighbour Kenya, whose GDP is $113.4b and 393 in Tanzania with a GDP of $77.06b.

Compared to 1960-1990s when each district accommodated between 400,000 and 500,000 people,  the current status shows that a combination of 135 districts, 10 cities and 30 municipalities accommodate an average of 257, 000 people.  

Each of the 529 Members of Parliament earns an estimated Shs25m per month. The LC5 chairpersons, city and municipality mayors each earn about Shs2.68m. 

Mr Magyezi admitted that the creation of more administrative units has become more costly to the government but insisted that it is the best initiative the government has ever come up with because it empowers local communities.

Costly local government
In the current Shs52.7t budget, local governments are sharing Shs5.1t, a reduction of two percent compared to the previous Shs5.2t that was allocated to the sector in the Financial Year 2022/23.
But all these combined cannot even raise 50 percent of the less than Shs300b target Finance Ministry tasks them to collect.

For example, in the last financial year, the local governments collected Shs131.3b revenue compared to the target Shs223.5b, according to the 2022 Auditor General’s report. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in the same period collected Shs104b, almost the same figure with 175 local governments.

“Generally, LGs (local governments) are heavily dependent on the central government grants which contribute 98 percent of the LG total funding. Local revenue performance, where 148 local governments did not collect Shs.92bn (41 percent), affected activities for which local revenue funding was earmarked,” Mr John Muwanga, the Auditor General, said in his report.

The minister acknowledged the persistent low revenue collection, which he blamed on the loopholes, leakages and the failure of Local Service Tax to effectively replace the Graduated Tax, which was abolished in 2005.

“We are stepping up local revenue collection through enrolling the Local Government Revenue collection automation,” he said, adding: “We need to ensure that we provide adequate revenue collection tools and also improve prudent management to fill the loopholes and leakages of revenue.”

“With the automation journey, we are moving away from issuing rudimentary receipts. In the near future, we shall be collecting a trillion shillings,” he said.

Mr Richard Sempala, an economist and policy analyst at Makerere University, however, said, “What we need most is to reduce on the number of these administrative units such that the administration cost is reduced because literally some districts are depending on others.” 

The Finance minister, Mr Matia Kasaija, tasked the LGs in the current financial year to collect Shs287b, a figure officials from the Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) said is possible this time round.
Kabarole District chairperson, who doubles as the president of ULGA, Mr Richard Rwabuhinga, said ULGA have also set ambitious revenue targets to supplement the budget funding.

Wages alone in the current LG budget are Shs3.2 trillion, up by 14 percent from the Shs2.8 trillion allocated in the previous financial year. Experts project this amount to increase because local governments are currently understaffed.

Mr Rwabuhinga said the staffing level, according to their recent analysis, stood at 57 percent in districts and 52 percent in municipalities. Mr Magyezi said between 70 percent and 75 percent of all positions in LGs are filled.

Out of the Shs734.7b unspent balance that was returned to the Treasury in the Financial Year 2022/23, only Shs225.2b was meant for wages, an indication that more will be required.

In the current budget, non-wages were given Shs716.9b, development Shs1.06t and statutory instruments (pensions and gratuity) got Shs188.4b, while the rest went to wages.

Who earns what at LGs?
On the wage budget, political leaders and districts, cities and municipal technical officials will consume about half a trillion, while other civil servants in agricultural extension, primary healthcare, primary education and tertiary institutions will share the remaining approximately Shs2.7t, according to the Public Service Ministry salary circular.

As earlier indicated, an LC5 chairperson, a city or municipality mayor earns Shs2.38m per month, which adds up to Shs28.56m annually, an indication that the government spends Shs4.9b to facilitate all the 175 LGs supreme heads per year.

These have assistants who each earn Shs1.19m per month and Shs14.2m per year. There is also a municipal/city division mayor who earns Shs1.19m per month and Shs14.2m per year.

The district/city speaker earns Shs724,000 per month and Shs8.6m per year, a member of the district/city executive earns Shs620,000 monthly and Shs7.4m per year.

A municipal/city deputy mayor earns Shs620,000 per month and Shs7.4m yearly, the municipal/division chairperson earns 412,000 per month and Shs4.9m per year while the sub-county boss, their municipal counterpart, also earns 412,000 per month and Shs4.9m annually.  At full capacity, the government spends Shs15.8b on salaries of political leaders per year.

The political wing do not work alone, they work with technical members who are directly recruited by national and district service commissions.

Under the office of the district boss, there is the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) whose main duties are to head the district public service and provide strategic leadership in developing, reviewing, monitoring and implementation of policies, plans, strategies and programmes of the central government and district council.

A CAO is also the accounting officer of the district. In cities and municipalities, this position is held by the city/town clerk.  These earn Shs2.38m per month and Shs28.5m yearly, an indication that the government spends Shs4.3b on their salaries. The CAO’s deputy earns Shs1.6m per month and about Shs19m per year.

The CAO/city or town clerk supervises about 10 departments including finance, procurement, works, education, community based, natural resources, production, trade and industry, and health, which are all headed by officers earning between Shs900,000 and Shs6.5m, depending on the category. All these are audited by the district/municipality or city auditor.

With an exception of the district health officer, who earns Shs6.5m per month and Shs78m per year, the rest of the staff on the same level, according to the salary structure, earn between Shs1.62m and Shs1.69m. The

Public Service ministry did not specify but grouped them under the administrative cadres.
With an estimate of Shs13.5m for the department officers and Shs6.5m for district health officers, the government would be spending Shs20m on salaries of these officers per month, and Shs240m per year on one district, city or municipality.

Under the CAO’s office, there is a principal assistant secretary and district auditor who each earns between Shs1.2m and Shs1.28m per month and approximately 15m per year. Government would roughly ideally be spending Shs52.5b on salaries of the top technical officers.

The departments have sub-offices occupied by officers whose salaries range between Shs1m and Shs4.5m depending on science and non-science related.

In total for example, the department of finance has 11 officers, procurement three officers, planning four officers, works 13 officers, education eight officers, community based service six officers, natural resources 12 officers, internal auditor two officers, production 13 officers, health nine officers, and trade and industry five officers.

These are in addition to the 29 district, city or municipal administrative staff who are headed by the deputy CAO or town/city clerk.

They include; a principal human resource officer, principal assistant secretary, senior assistant secretary, information officer or public relations, senior office supervisor, principal human resource officer, senior records officer, senior it officer, it officer, records officer, human resource officer, assistant records officer, two personnel secretary, three stenographer secretary, two pool stenographer, two office typist, seven office attendant and two driver.

The exact number of staffing levels is not clear because Mr Magyezi said it is at 75 percent average, while Mr Rwabuhinga placed it at 57 percent average in districts and 52 percent in municipalities.

Mr Magyezi said most of the districts with gaps in areas of engineers where the majority of qualified officers decline the jobs because of the low pay attached to it. Huge government expenditures of salaries of local government officials have on several occasions’ irked officials.

Mr Isaac Madoi, the Lutseshe County MP, who sits on the Parliamentary Committee on Public Service and Local Government, while interacting with Local Government ministry officials on January 17, said it is high time for local governments to start paying their staff.

“I think we erred in allowing the government to pay emoluments for local government officials because ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’,” he said.

Swelling districts
From 16 in the 1950s, the government is now grappling with 175 district level administrative units. According to the 2008 study titled District Creation and Decentralisation in Uganda that was conducted by Crisis States Research Centre, districts increased gradually between 1959 and 1979.
From the initial 16 in 1959, the number grew to 37 in 1974 with an average population of 300,000 people per district.

This, according to the study decreased to 33 in 1979, slightly rose to 34 in 1990 and later continued shooting up to the current 175.

Between 1990 and 2006, the number rose to 79 with an average population of 380,000 people per district. The number later skyrocketed to 112 in 2012, all courtesy of decentralisation policy.

In its argument, the government said the increment aimed at increasing citizen participation in leadership, advance service delivery and steer local governance that addressed community needs.

The findings of 2014 study titled; districts creation and its impact on local government in Uganda that was conducted by Ms Jane Ayeko Kummeth, then PhD student at the University of Bayreuth and later published on the African Journal of Political Science and International Relations does not reflect government’s argument.

Ms Kummeth found out that there was [is] no direct coloration between creating district local governments and improved service delivery or participation.

The new districts, she said, are set to become a key criterion for long term sustenance of individual political ambitions as well as increasing the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) patronage.

Minister Magyezi’s revelations that some districts are literally struggling to get where they operate from confirms Ms Kummeth’s findings.

Additional 23 districts were created between 2005 and 2020, which brought the number to 135 districts. During the same period 30 municipalities were also created and later 15 cities of which only 10 are operational.

Dilemma of decentralisation

The continuous habits of local governments sending all their revenues to Treasury before again getting partial from it is among the major constraints of proper service delivery, according to Mr Rwabuhinga.

“Politically, we are 100 percent decentralised. Now, we need fiscal decentralisation too. The delayed remittance of funds by the Finance ministry is affecting service delivery and that is why you see districts and municipalities choking with garbage, shallow wells, boreholes, undone roads and that’s is why we want the policy to be revised,” he said. 

Section 85 of the 1993 Local Government Act had stipulated a certain percentage of locally collected revenue that should be retained and the rest sent to the consolidated fund where a district, city or municipal would retain 50 percent, sub-counties 65 percent.

This was, however, changed by the 2005 Public Finance Management Act, which requires all the collected funds to first be sent into the consolidated fund before being returned to the local governments by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

Mr Magyezi said his ministry is engaging with its finance counterpart, to amend some of the sections because decentralisation remains a good tool for easing service deliveries like government programmes including the parish development model, Emyooga, eased security, primary health care, primary education, and water among others.

“As a ministry we are gearing up to effective implementation of the policy because it has been good. Entrusting people to determine their affairs has been a nice initiative which we shall continue to implement,” he said.