Scrap LC5 - Chebrot

Nov 01, 2000

District chairmen should be scrapped because they have created terrorism, Tingey MP, Stephen Chebrot, said yesterday.

By Joyce Namutebi District chairmen should be scrapped because they have created terrorism, Tingey MP, Stephen Chebrot, said yesterday. "The only people who have tested decentralisation are the chairmen of LC5 and the executive. What we have created in the district are chairmen who are terrorists. They have created terrorism," Chebrot said. He said the chairmen were terrorising civil servants and controlling the district tender boards. Chebrot was contributing to a discussion during the ongoing Parliamentary Studies Programme Two at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala. The study on Decentralisation and Parliament and Parliament and the Media was funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID) in cooperation with the British Council, Kampala. Dr. Okulo Epak (Oyam south) said decentralising corruption was the only aspect that the country had succeeded in doing. However, the Chief of Division, Financial Management at the Decentralisation Secretariat, Sylvester Kisembo, said decentralisation had nothing to do with corruption. Corruption, he said, was both at the centre and in the local governments. On the argument that the government had decentralised corruption, Kisembo said, "Then corruption was there, you can't decentralise what was not there." He said decentralisation had given the people a big opportunity to talk about corruption. "We have set too tough rules on corruption. Once you make rules too tight, you are creating a leeway," he said. He cautioned against describing the lack of accountability as corruption. He also cautioned MPs against setting double standards. "Immediately you MPs say our allowances are not enough, councillors will also say so the next day," Kisembo said. The Speaker of Parliament, Francis Ayume, said the MPs should fulfill the promises they made to the electorate. Ayume said the greatest challenge facing MPs was to make the electorate move away from the fallacy that the centre was the provider of services and realise that this was the responsibility of the local authorities. Winnie Babihuga (woman Rukungiri) said some local governments were wasting their time in taking wrangles to courts and disregarding the provisions of the law. Babihuga said some people regarded decentralisation as taking away their power on decision-making, resource and personnel management. Ends.

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