POLITICS | REPORTS | RDCs | RCCs

President Yoweri Museveni has asked resident district commissioners (RDCs) to file individual statements on the rot inside their respective districts of deployment.

According to the Minister for the Presidency, Milly Babalanda, the directive, which is immediate, mainly targets what she described as RDCs who have been sleeping on the job.

“I am equally gratified that the President has required RDCs/ RCCs who were sleeping on their jobs to make individual statements explaining the rot in service delivery in their districts,” she said, noting that corrupt and lazy RDCs will not be entertained.

The state minister for ethics and integrity, Rose Lilly Akello, delivered Babalanda’s speech during the closing of a weeklong retreat for RDCs at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in the Kyankwanzi district over the weekend.

Babalanda also said she would not shield any RDCs who engage in corruption, especially those that solicit bribes from contractors and investors.

Poor service delivery 

According to Babalanda, the rot in local governments and poor service delivery are partly blamed on lazy RDCs who are failing to exercise their mandate. The Minister for the Presidency also warned that the gap between the district police commanders and the RDCs was widening, a trend that was affecting the operations of RDCs in their respective districts.

“Please note that anyone we catch red-handed involved in such corrupt tendencies will be charged in the anti-corruption courts." The idea of saying that if we expose you, we will be defaming the presidency, will no longer count. The President recently demanded to report all leaders asking for bribes from investors. Surely you are also 'leaders’ and you will be charged in the Anti-Corruption Court,” she explained.

“Going forward, I cannot entertain corrupt and lazy RDCs/RCCs and deputies who want to use 'powerful politicians’ to pressurize me into making decisions and actions in their favor." I also wish to appeal to such leaders who protect and defend these corrupt RDCs and RCCs without even bothering to understand their issues, that at times they may be seen as collaborators in these crimes,” she added.

At the same function, the Vice-President, Jessica Alupo, also tasked RDCs with filing monthly reports on corruption in districts, noting that embezzlement was “escalating the national debt." “Starting August 1, we require you to make reports on corruption cases because this is the biggest cancer eating up our country,” she said.

"Corruption and embezzlement are the big leaks escalating the national debt, trapping us in the cycle of continuous borrowing,” she explained.

RDCs speak out

Speaking at the closing ceremony, the dean of resident district commissioners (RDCs), Justine Mbabazi (Wakiso), said: “Districts along the borders face challenges in hosting security meetings since there is no facilitation provided to host such meetings, yet when meetings of similar nature are hosted inside the neighboring countries, facilitation is handled by the host country.”

The RDCs also decried legal battles, which they said derailed their work.

“We have observed that in the course of the execution of the duties of the RDC/Resident City Commissioners (RCCs) as per your directives, some RDCs find themselves embroiled in legal dilemmas that consume time and resources, yet they face them singlehandedly, without any support from the office." "It is our humble appeal that if an RDC/RCC is dragged before the court while implementing a presidential directive, such an RDC/RCC be supported by the office to go through the court battle,” she said.

Mbabazi also said that from the short time they have served, RDCs have realized that the Government loses a lot of money to corrupt contractors who connive with technical staff from the line ministries to fail the projects.