New Terego District stuck without funds

A boda boda man maneuvers through the slippery Manibe-Terego road last year. PHOTO | FELIX WAROM OKELLO

What you need to know:

  • The Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Stephen Lokope, said they depend on support from the development partners and non-governmental organisations.

Delivery of services in Terego District has been hampered by lack of resources, Daily Monitor has learnt.
Parliament late last year approved a Shs23.8 billion supplementary budget, but the money has not been released to the district due to lack of political leadership.

Terego District was carved out of Arua District in June last year and some of the services that have been majorly affected include maintenance of roads, monitoring of health services and extension of clean water.

 The Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Stephen Lokope, said they depend on support from the development partners and non-governmental organisations.

 “Since June to date, we have not received funding from the central government. The partners have been giving us fuel for monitoring government projects. We are surviving because of them,” he said.
He added that the absence of an interim council is also affecting decision making and approval of budgets.

Mr Lokope said the proposal by Parliament to constitute the interim council has not been confirmed by the Electoral Commission.
 In November last year, during an impromptu visit to the district, the State minister for Local Government, Ms Jenipher Namuyangu, said the district was not duly funded because it was created under extraordinary circumstances.

 “The reason you didn’t have a budget is that we had not imagined that we would create Terego but along the way, Minister Obiga Kania insisted and requested the President to fulfil his pledge of creating Terego District otherwise, we would have planned for you,” she said.

 However, the MP for Terego East and also State Minister for Internal Affairs, Mr Obiga Kania, said: “We will continue to lobby for funds because we need to put in place infrastructure such as upgrading of health units and construction of a hospital. We also want to make sure that the road network is improved so that our people can benefit.”

Population

Terego has a population of 378,000 people of which 210,000 are host communities while 168,000 are refugees settled in the camps.