NAADS: Is local govt funding

Mar 14, 2007

DIFFERENT sectors have criticised the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) for inefficiency. <br>Recently, President Yoweri Museveni said NAADS was receiving a lot of funding, but there was nothing to show that it was helping the population. <br>

By Joshua Kato and
Ronald Kalyango


DIFFERENT sectors have criticised the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) for inefficiency.
Recently, President Yoweri Museveni said NAADS was receiving a lot of funding, but there was nothing to show that it was helping the population.

State minister for agriculture Maj Bright Rwamirama and Wakiso LC5 chairman engineer Ian Kyeyune expressed similar sentiments.

Roles of local leaders in NAADS programmes under the programme, farmers and local governments are required to contribute funds to running the programme.

Other major roles include taking part in multi-disciplinary teams and farmer forum functions. Local governments should also create management committees at sub-counties and parishes and supervise NAADS activities.

District performance
Districts are required to contribute 5%, the sub-county 5% and farmers 2% of funds from the Central Government. However, many local governments do not comply.

According to a district and sub-county NAADS general performance survey in 2006, it was established that local governments achieved a co-funding rate of 40.9%.

A total of 38.1% of the districts achieved 100% co-funding, while 38.1% did not provide any financial support.
Districts that complied with co-funding include Hoima, Kibaale, Bushenyi, Kabarole, Kapchorwa/Bukwo, Kitgum, Wakiso, Mbale and Manafwa.

At the sub-county level, co-funding had an overall performance of 40.6%. A total of 20.1% of the sampled sub-counties achieved 100% co-funding, while 32.5% failed to achieve any co-funding.

Individual sub-county performance was rated at 42%. However, for the last three years, more than 25 sub-counties achieved overall performance of more than 70%. Of these, Hoima had nine sub-counties, while Kibaale, Kitgum, Mukono and Kabarole had more than one sub-county each.

The overall achievement of the districts and sub-counties involved in NAADS activities was 43%. Hoima led in the 2003/04 financial year with 83.5%, Kabarole registered 61.4% in 2002/03, while Kitgum had 57% in 2002/03.

Dr. Silim Nahdy, the executive director of NAADS, says some people in the districts have succeeded and have been rewarded. However, he adds that some individuals still oppose the programme.

Nahdy points out Hoima, Kabarole, Kitgum, Kamuli, Mbale, Arua and Soroti as the districts that have benefited from co-funding. Districts like Kapchorwa, Tororo, Lira, Luweero, Nakaseke and Bushenyi have not performed well.

Challenges to local leaders “Generally, poor co-funding of NAADS programmes by the local governments is attributed to external factors beyond the programme, like national decisions concerning the abolition of taxes,” a NAADS assessment indicates.

Most districts and sub-counties wait for graduated tax compensation, which in many cases is not realised.

Loss of revenue and lack of resources is cited as the main reason why local governments cannot fund NAADS activities.

However, in several districts, graduated tax compensation funds have been effectively used to co-fund NAADS activities.

According to George Tinkamanyire Bagonza, the LC5 chairman of Hoima, his district used mainly Graduated Tax compensation funds to co-fund NAADS programmes. In some cases, however, the compensating amounts are too little to cater for co-funding.

In Nawampiti sub-county, Iganga district, sh390,000 is received as graduated tax compensation.

This has to be spent on facilitating meetings for the sub-county council and paying allowances to the councillors.

“You realise that this amount is barely enough to carry out basic council work. In the end, there is nothing left to co-fund development programmes including those of NAADS,” says Iganga LC5 chairman Asuman Kyafu.

“We get little funds at the sub-counties and most of them are for NAADS, this is why we are tempted to divert some funds to other sub-county work,” says a sub-county chairman in Nakaseke, whose annual budget, including NAADS funding, is sh6m.

In Pallisa, the Kameke sub-county chief was recently arrested for diverting sh4m meant for NAADS activities. The money was to top up contributions from NAADS beneficiary farmer groups.

In Luweero, an audit report revealed that there was poor accountability for NAADS funds in the last financial year, with over sh22m unaccounted for, while there was no value for money for most of the NAADS projects. As a result, the LC5 chairman, Ronald Ndawula, has called for a revamping of NAADS activities in the district.

According to Kapchorwa district LC5 chairman, Nelson Chelimo, the district would love to co-fund the activities, but lack of resources limits them. “It is not only NAADS co-funding, but also that of other government programmes. We do not have funds.”

However, the local government funding might improve gradually. A proposal to introduce alternative sources of funding for local governments is being debated by the Uganda Local Finance Commission.

“Some local leaders lack interest in supervising NAADS activities because the funds are directly sent to the sub-counties,” says a NAADS official.

“We have had cases where a chairman of a sub-county fights to get a Boer goat or seeds from the NAADS coordinator.

When the NAADS coordinators refuse to hand them over, the chairman becomes agitated and loses interest in NAADS activities,” George Bagonza, the Hoima district chairman explains.

However, some local leaders agree that the NAADS programme has changed many people’s lives, but the scarce resources have hindered them from complementing the programme.

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