Prime Minister Robina Nabbanja (pictured) has told off people who criticized Secretary to Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi for firing ‘incompetent’ Town Clerks and Accounting Officers to leave government to clean up the mess in poor service delivery in many local governments.
“You are aware that we have a law in place that informed the accounting officers to produce budgets on time. And some of these accounting officers didn’t abide by the law,” Nabbanja said.
She added: “The Secretary to Treasury had to crack the whip, if we don’t crack a whip, some of these people are failing government. We are going to handle it on a case by case basis and those that we find still relevant will remain but there are those who have made it a habit year in year out, allow us do our work.”
The Premier’s remarks were in response to a concern raised by Ethel Naluyima (DWR Wakiso) who noted that on 7th July 2022 the Secretary to Treasury wrote a letter to the Ministry of Local Government announcing the cancellation of appointments of 110 Accounting Officers including Chief Executive Officers and Town Clerks.
Naluyima asked Parliament to inquire into the matter after the members of Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) came out to criticize the Secretary to Treasury as well as the Ministry of Local Government that denied knowledge on the cancellation of the appointment because the Ministry of Finance didn’t make consultations before the decision was taken.
In her prayer to Parliament, Naluyima asked Parliament to concern itself with the matter and inquire about the circumstances that led to the firing of these accounting officers.
“The Minister of Finance and Minister of Local Government should study into details the circumstances surrounding the cause of cancellation of the letters of 110 officers who are concerned with service delivery which concerns all of us,” said Naluyima.
It should be recalled that last week, Secretary to Treasury Ggoobi announced the sacking of 110 chief executive officers –CAOs and municipal town clerks countrywide accusing them of failure to comply with the public finance management Act of 2015 to submit their annual budgets of 2022/23 within the required time frame.
In his letter to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Local Government, Ggoobi pointed out that while all central government votes submitted their approved budget estimates, work plans and procurement plans, and performance contracts, only 66 local government votes have submitted their respective budget details for FY2022/23, an action he said delayed budget commencement and delay service delivery.
Peter Ocen (Kole South) raised concerns on the impact the untimely sacking of these accounting officers would cause to the districts because at the moment, many of the Accounting officers are fighting battles with Chairpersons at the various districts.
“CAOs are at the centre stage of implementing government strategy. As I talk now, one of our CAOs was murdered in cold blood like chicken. At the moment with the cancellation of all those CAOs s we talk now, CAOs’ appointments, I wonder how the government programmes are going to run. The cancellation should have come way back so that it gives these people time to prepare and hand over,” said Ocen.
Although Anthony Akol (Kilak North) welcomed the move to crack a whip on incompetent accounting officers, he called on Parliament to review the process on how the matter was handled by reviewing the 110 sacking on case by case basis..
He said, “We have really been frustrated by these accounting officers and I think there is need for action to be taken, and there is need for someone to do something about it and if we don’t do that, we are not going to get the service delivery we want. At the same time, there is need to find out why there were delays in meeting the provisions of PFMA.”
Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa backed the proposal for review on the cancellation remarking, “I am happy for the first time we have someone who can crack a whip, my concern was on how Government can engage government. I saw the Minister of Local Government protesting the manner, so meaning communication between the government agencies was the problem.”
Tayebwa tasked both Ministries of Finance and Local Government to meet and agree on how the matter should be handled.
