Tumwebaze directs on KCCA standing committees

Mar 03, 2014

Kampala minister, Frank Tumwebaze, has issued a directive to Kampala capital City Authority (KCCA) to constitute interim working groups of elected councilors to perform the task of standing committees.

By John Semakula

Kampala minister, Frank Tumwebaze, has issued a directive to Kampala capital City Authority (KCCA) to constitute interim working groups of elected councilors to perform the task of standing committees.


The KCCA standing committees have not been working since 2012 when their mandate expired and former Mayor Erias Lukwago refused to renew them.

The failure to renew the committees was one of the grounds city councilors based on to petition Tumwebaze to begin the process of impeaching Lukwago.  

The standing committees receive performance reports on a quarterly basis and report their findings to the minister.

The committee members also receive, scrutinize and recommend to the minister proposals for the budget of the departments. The committees are the heart of the council.

Tumwebaze issued the directive in a letter dated February 27 in response to an earlier communication the city’s executive director Jenifer Musisi wrote to him on January 30.

Musisi wrote, “The major function of the elected leaders in Kampala is to oversee the performance of the management team and provide political guidance. We should ensure that this function is performed despite the absence of the Lord Mayor.”

The councilors wanted the minister to help in constituting the real standing committees but he said it was impossible.
“Standing committee could only be constituted through an election during a duly convened Authority meeting presided over by a Lord Mayor,” Tumwebaze said.

Tumwebaze also directed that the members on the working groups should be paid allowances commensurate to what members of standing committees would get.

The expiry of standing committees had left many councilors idle yet earning the taxi payers money.

Responding to the development, councilor Bernard Luyiga (Makerere) said that the directive is long overdue since they have a backlog of issues to handle including budgeting, bodaboda and youth unemployment.
                                                  

 

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