It’s as well CAOs’ powers are trimmed!

May 27, 2004

SIR— The assertion about two months ago by President Yoweri Museveni at Sironko, that the central government would soon be empowered <br>to deal with errant chief administrative officers (CAOs) is not only welcome but even overdue.

SIR— The assertion about two months ago by President Yoweri Museveni at Sironko, that the central government would soon be empowered
to deal with errant chief administrative officers (CAOs) is not only welcome but even overdue. The same should apply to town clerks of
municipalities.
Activities of most of these
officials have tremendously bogged down developments
in the local governments
simply because the law of decentralisation protects them.
To amend the Local Government Act to give
the central government enough powers to punish CAOs or TCS who misappropriate funds channelled
to the local governments
is also coming at an opportune moment to reduce on abuse
of decentralisation policy
by some unscrupulous local leaders.
The technical misappropriation of government funds
by these accounting officers
in collusion with some of their local political leaders and their cronies in the ministries of Local Government, Finance and Education, from where most of these funds originate, will be greatly limited if not eliminated.
These officers will now fear and cease to pay contractors who carry out shoddy work on government projects. Instead their emphasis will have to be directed at proper supervision and monitoring of works on the projects by the contractors to avoid shoddy work.
Lastly, the Inspector General of Government should also be empowered to prosecute
the officers who misappropriate the funds and have them punished instead of merely making investigations and
recommendations to their leaders in local governments who, in most cases, ignore such recommendations, protect the culprits and have developments bogged down.

John Hamya
Mbale

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