The State Minister for Local Government, Jennifer Namuyangu, has attacked leaders for failing the youth livelihood program (YLP) in different parts of the country, URN reports.
Minister Namuyangu raised the concern during her visit Bukomansimbi district to monitor several government projects in the district. She met the district leaders at Bukomansimbi district headquarters at Kabulunga village, Butenga Sub County.
She says that in most parts of the country, leaders have influenced the youth not to pay back the money saying that the funds are a donation from the government.
Namuyangu cites Abim district, where a big number of youth groups have completely failed to pay back the funds because they were told that the money is a token of appreciation from government.
She reminded the district leaders that their areas are likely to lose out on the YLHP if they fail to recover the funds.
Namuyangu asked the leaders to mobilize the youth groups to pay back the money so that other groups can also. She also warned district leaders against charging daily fees from taxi operators and market vendors because these fees were stopped by the president.
Namuyangu says that a big number of district authorities are fond of tendering taxi parks and markets to people who harass traders.
The Bukomansimbi district LCV Vice Chairperson Christine Mukiibi says that they have so far spent about 499 million shillings on the construction of the district administration block.
He explains that they are currently hunting for more than 750 million shillings to complete construction.
The Bukomansimbi District Chief Administrative Officer Asuman Masereka says that the district is stuck with the challenge of lack of enough technical staff which he says greatly affects service delivery.
Masereka says that the staffing level in Bukomansimbi is at 60% yet they serve a population of over 156,000 people asking the Minister to at least find means getting them District Health Officer of and District engineer because their absence is affecting works in these critical departments in the operation of the district.
Several group youth leaders in Bukomansimbi district were recently arrested for failing to pay back the YLP funds.
