Do we need all these new districts?
Apr 25, 2010
THE Parliament has commenced consideration of a motion for the creation of more new districts.<br>The motion presented to Parliament by the State Minister for Local Government, Ahabwe Pereza, on Thursday creates 14 new districts which if approved will push the total number of districts this year to
THE Parliament has commenced consideration of a motion for the creation of more new districts.
The motion presented to Parliament by the State Minister for Local Government, Ahabwe Pereza, on Thursday creates 14 new districts which if approved will push the total number of districts this year to 111.
Since the creation of districts started over 15 years ago, there has been unprecedented demand for the same based on political, tribal or other reasons.
The creation of districts has not been smooth. Tension has been running high in Tororo and Arua over the location of the new districts headquarters and Bushenyi over the proposed split.
The strong argument for creation of new districts has been job creation and improved infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and roads. While this may be true, we are going to have a bloated Parliament and high cost of public administration.
It would be worthwhile, to find out whether the failure to deliver services is due to geographical location of the areas demanding districts, or incompetent leaders.
What we have seen is poor leadership and corruption from the parent districts being replicated in the new districts.
The other argument for the clamour of new districts is that there will be more funding. This is not true.
The budget for the parent ministry is instead being split to cater for the new districts. Against the high expectations, there is little evidence to show that service delivery is improving.
Another problem is that government agencies are overstretched. Institutions such as the Police, the Electoral Commission, the Judiciary, schools, and hospitals have not been given adequate funding to match the mushrooming districts.
The question then is, are there other ways of improving service delivery without creating new districts which have narrow revenue bases?
We should put a stop to this crave for new districts based on political demands or amend the Constitution to make every county a district.
The motion presented to Parliament by the State Minister for Local Government, Ahabwe Pereza, on Thursday creates 14 new districts which if approved will push the total number of districts this year to 111.
Since the creation of districts started over 15 years ago, there has been unprecedented demand for the same based on political, tribal or other reasons.
The creation of districts has not been smooth. Tension has been running high in Tororo and Arua over the location of the new districts headquarters and Bushenyi over the proposed split.
The strong argument for creation of new districts has been job creation and improved infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and roads. While this may be true, we are going to have a bloated Parliament and high cost of public administration.
It would be worthwhile, to find out whether the failure to deliver services is due to geographical location of the areas demanding districts, or incompetent leaders.
What we have seen is poor leadership and corruption from the parent districts being replicated in the new districts.
The other argument for the clamour of new districts is that there will be more funding. This is not true.
The budget for the parent ministry is instead being split to cater for the new districts. Against the high expectations, there is little evidence to show that service delivery is improving.
Another problem is that government agencies are overstretched. Institutions such as the Police, the Electoral Commission, the Judiciary, schools, and hospitals have not been given adequate funding to match the mushrooming districts.
The question then is, are there other ways of improving service delivery without creating new districts which have narrow revenue bases?
We should put a stop to this crave for new districts based on political demands or amend the Constitution to make every county a district.