Govt to issue LC1, 2 official stamps

The Minister for Local Government, also the Igara West MP, Mr Raphael Magyezi, has revealed that government has finalised plans to issue official stamps for Local Council (LC) 1 and 2 across the country.
Speaking to the media after an engagement meeting with civil society organisations in Kampala yesterday, Mr Magyezi said the exercise is expected to start next week to make all local council documents official.
 
“Chairpersons have responsibilities to sign on several official documents but they have been using their own stamps, which are not recognised anywhere,” he said 
Mr Magyezi added that this will reduce bribery, corruption and smuggling of cattle in the country because this official stamp will clearly indicate the place where the person has been cleared from.
“Every village is going to have a different stamp with security marks and codes showing that it was issued by the government,” he said.
 
Mr Magyezi added that they have already secured more than 50,000 stamps and they will have village meetings cross the country to inform the public about the new development. 
“People have been duplicating official documents such as travel documents, transfers and recommendation letters because LC 1s and LC2s have not been using official stamps,” he said.
Mr Magyezi also noted that during  the village meetings, they are going to ask people why there is a high rate of Universal Primary Education (UPE) dropouts across the country as schools reopen for the second phase.
“We want to introduce universal free education because we have realised that extra charges is one of the reasons why UPE has failed in some areas, “he said.
 
Mr Magyezi added that some people are still very poor that they cannot afford extra charges, even if the government has paid the biggest percentage.
Mr Richard Okuku from Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, said in a survey they have done since the lockdown, they have realised that service delivery was totally affected, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

“The report indicated that the education sector has totally been affected during the lockdown because the government failed to deliver reading materials in remote areas as it was promised,” he said 
Mr Okuku added that their research indicated that UPE enrollment had dropped from 17 million in 2017 to 15 million in 2020.