Govt urged to increase funding for Arua special interest groups

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ARUA - Leaders in Arua City have asked government to increase funding allocated to all categories of special interest groups.

Speaking during a meeting organized by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) on Thursday at the city conference hall, the leaders say funding of National Special Grant, Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), Uganda Women Entrepreneurship (UWEP), Emyooga and Parish Development Model (PDM) is too low.

The EOC officials were on a fact-finding mission to monitor, audit, and access the main government programmes in Arua City.

Dan Opima, the chairperson Arua City Elders Council, says data of older persons to benefit from government's Senior Citizens Grant under the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) has not been updated, thus leaving out a number of elders.

Khadija Aliru, the female councilor representing Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Arua City, says that only 3% of the registered PWDs have benefitted from the National Special Grant.

She appealed for increased funding to cover the 4,779 registered PWDS be covered.

Simon Enaku, the male youth councillor in Arua City, says funding of the Youth Livelihood programme will cover six groups who will share sh54 million for the financial year 2023/2024

Godfrey Anguyo, the councillor representing Ayivu North urged Parliament to amend the Public Finance Management Act to mandate local governments to appropriate funds from local revenues rather than waiting for the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury.

“Local governments are suffocating, we no longer have decentralization in this country in terms of financial management. Previously local governments collected local revenues and managed them at local councils now parliament has come up with the Finance Act we talk about now even sh500 which is collected from the market must go to the Ministry of Finance before it's used for service delivery,” said Anguyo.

Arua City Clerk to Council Doris Tazita, who represented the city clerk says due to the increasing demand, technical staff have faced challenges in allocating funds to different groups benefiting from government programmes.

“When it comes to implementation of programmes sometimes there are deliberate allocations that this category of group should benefit by this percentage, sometimes you find the numbers don’t add up to the expectations of different programme lineups,” said Tazita.