Over 110.4Bn needed to fully operationalise new Local Government administrative units.

In 2019, President Yoweri K. Museveni warned the then minister for Local Government, Tom Butime, against creation of too many municipalities and town councils for they would put strains on the government’s treasury.

Subsequently in April this year, the minister of Local Government, Raphael Magyezi, said that the government indefinitely suspended the creation of new administrative structures across the country.

According to Magyezi, the new structures have widened the funding gaps of lower local governments and the government is currently looking for money to fund the recently created districts and cities.  

Following the conclusion of the 2020 general elections, the local government ministry revealed that it will need a minimum of 110.4 Billion shillings to fully operationalise the new administrative units across the country.

This was revealed by the State minister for Local Government, Jenipher K. Namuyangu, while delivering the ministry’s implementation agenda (2016-2021) on Tuesday at the Office of the Prime Minister Conference hall.

“From the 2016/17 FY to date, we have been creating administrative units specifically town councils and sub-counties and we need a minimum of 110.4 Bn to fully operationalise them,” she said.

Namuyangu noted that the ministry still needs more money for induction of new local government leaders. The need follows the reasoning that there has been an 87% leadership turnover every after general election over the years which equally poses a challenge since most leaders are unaware of running public offices.

“We have just concluded elections and the turnover of local government leaders was over 80% and it’s therefore necessary to induct them. We need 17 Bn to carry out the induction of these leaders,” Namuyangu said.

According to Magyezi, Uganda has 364 sub-counties, 352 town councils and 10 cities.

Regardless of the amount of money needed, Namuyanga strongly believes and is confident that the resources for the new administration units will be found even so, because the future has been secured.

The operations of the newly created sub-counties and town councils lie in balance after the Ministry of Finance failed to provide a budget allocation for the new administrative units.

However, Magyezi said that the government is considering providing funds for the operationalisation of the administrative units in the next budget. He further noted that the government has taken a decision to create no more new administrative units given the financial burdens.

He added that in future, the creation of any administrative units in government must be accompanied by a certificate of financial implications to certify that the government has the money to fund their operations.