Cities in Northern regional told to manage assets

Dec 02, 2022

Masereka underscored the importance of regular joint meetings to evaluate performance and share experiences in infrastructure asset management.

Mayors,Town clerks and officials from the Ministries of Finance, Local governments after the week long training in Hotel Le-confidentiel in Arua district. (Photo by Edna Piyic)

Edna Piyic
Journalist @New Vision

UGANDA | NORTH | ASSETS | MANAGEMENT

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have told cities in the northern region cities to manage their assets properly.

This was revealed in a Training workshop jointly organized by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development.

The training comes against a backdrop of the fact that in the last five years, the government of Uganda has invested heavily in infrastructure and significantly expanded and improved its portfolio of infrastructure assets, which calls for heightened efforts to improve the management of these assets.

The Training was financed by UNDESA and UNCDF through the Financing Durable Solutions for Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDS Initiative) which aims to finance durable solutions for urban refugees, youth, and other vulnerable groups in the cities.

The FDS Initiative is being implemented in Uganda and Somalia in the Cities of Arua, Gulu, Bosaso, and Baidoa with financing from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The Deputy Town Clerk. Arua City, Cornelius Jobile, noted that several assets in the city, like schools, health centers, water points, roads, and markets, were designed for the city population, but with the ever-increasing city population due to an influx of refugees and other internally displaced persons in the urban areas, these infrastructures depreciate faster. Infrastructure asset management as one of the durable solutions to urban forced displacement is thus timely and will go a long way in improving their capacity to improve the management of their assets.

He emphasized the need for increased budgeting for O&M if the infrastructure fully supports service delivery.

The deputy mayor of Arua City Inzikuru Milly noted that planning for proper asset management and ensuring that assets are managed well and put to the right use will provide legitimacy to the new cities.

She noted that the population had a lot of expectations for better services when the new cities were created, but given the sorry state of infrastructure in the cities, much of that hope was lost.

“This timely and should be able to support improve management of existing infrastructures and thus service delivery”, She said.

She mentioned that there is a need to get data on the number of urban refugees because the current number of refugees are the ones in the Arua central division leaving out Ayivu.

“The city council conducted a census in Arua central division in 2020 however Ayivu division’s number of refugees has not been ascertained due to inadequate funding for the activity”, She revealed.

The mayor of Baidou city in Somalia, Hilal Mohamed Aden said they have a population of one million people, but out of them, 750,000 are internally displaced persons.

“The insecurity in Somalia has forced people to settle in internally displaced camps though the situation is improving so managing assets and infrastructure that is meant for inhabitants remains a challenge.

Julius Masereka speaking, for the Permanent Secretary, of the Ministry of Local Government, underscored the role the academia represented in the training by Makerere University- College of Business and Management Sciences (COBAMS), Uganda Management Institute, and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda in furthering the skills and support scale up.

He said that the Ministry will work closely with Makerere University and UMI to develop IAM short courses and will encourage Makerere University to additionally integrate it into Investments and Infrastructure-related postgraduate or undergraduate courses.

He underscored the importance of regular joint meetings to evaluate performance and share experiences in infrastructure asset management.

Speaking on behalf of UNCDF, Joel Mundua, the Project manager and deputy head of office at UNCDF in Uganda, underscored the importance of training and infrastructure asset management in general as one of the durable solutions for cities to respond to the impact of displacement in urban areas.

He noted that Cities and Local Governments invest the bulk of their budgets into Infrastructure assets and thus they control large portfolios of infrastructure assets, like roads, vehicles, buildings, and equipment.

“These assets constitute a major part of local public wealth and which these governments manage, helping them build a solid balance sheet and improve their creditworthiness, if well managed”, He mentioned.

Mundua noted that Infrastructure Assets management remains critical for improved local fiscal health and the quality of local development and sustainability of local services and the quality of life for citizens.

He added that for cities like Arua and Gulu which have extra populations of forcibly displaced persons including refugees’ proper management of infrastructure assets becomes even more critical.

He hailed the Governments of Uganda and the Federal Government of Somalia for supporting the initiative and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the UN DESA for their partnership with UNCDF in promoting this initiative not only in Uganda but the region. 

He implored the Government to ensure Assets management becomes one of the performance areas to be assessed in the Local Government Performance Assessment as well as a key performance indicator for all accounting officers.

Linda Newton a facilitator in her remarks on behalf of UN DESA noted that IAM Initiative is implemented jointly by UNDESA and UNCDF to address the lack of sustained and systematic strategies, policies, and actions at the national and local government levels to ensure that infrastructure assets support inclusive, affordable and sustainable essential public services over their entire lifespan.

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