Speaker abandons Rakai budget meeting
Sep 03, 2009
RAKAI LC5 councillors failed to pass the district budget on Friday when the speaker, Joe Mukisa, stormed out of the council meeting.
By Ali Mambule
RAKAI LC5 councillors failed to pass the district budget on Friday when the speaker, Joe Mukisa, stormed out of the council meeting.
“I adjourn this coucil immediately, let me go and consult,†he immediately stood up and left coucil. He was going to consult over an issue but never returned.
“Everything has stalled. We don’t know when the speaker will convene the council again to pass the budget,†the LC5 chairman, Vincent Semakula, told The New Vision.
He said all programmes in the district were likely to be halted because government cannot send money to a district which has no approved budget. Mukisa stormed out of the council meeting in the middle of a discussion which involved a court order stopping the councillors from discussing matters related to the removal of the finance secretary, Kintu Patrick Kisekulo.
Whereas the High Court in Masaka had stopped councilors from discussing the matter, it was number one on the order paper and some councillors, led by Rose Namayengo and Henry Mulindwa, insisted on discussing it.
“If Kisekulo sued the council, we are the ones he sued and we must get a way forward. We cannot sit back and wait for the court to summon this august house without getting a communication from the technical team,†Mulindwa said.
Mulindwa, Namayengo and other councillors are opposed to Kisekulo being the secretary of finance. They want Semakula to throw him out of office before they pass the district budget.
Agnes Namusiitwa, the woman councillor for Kyebe and Kakuuto sub- counties, said it was unwise to put Kiseluo’s issue on the order paper in a budget meeting.
“We would have discussed the budget, passed it and let the technical staff work for our voters. People in the villages will suffer because of this very council they voted to work for them,†Namusiitwa said.
RAKAI LC5 councillors failed to pass the district budget on Friday when the speaker, Joe Mukisa, stormed out of the council meeting.
“I adjourn this coucil immediately, let me go and consult,†he immediately stood up and left coucil. He was going to consult over an issue but never returned.
“Everything has stalled. We don’t know when the speaker will convene the council again to pass the budget,†the LC5 chairman, Vincent Semakula, told The New Vision.
He said all programmes in the district were likely to be halted because government cannot send money to a district which has no approved budget. Mukisa stormed out of the council meeting in the middle of a discussion which involved a court order stopping the councillors from discussing matters related to the removal of the finance secretary, Kintu Patrick Kisekulo.
Whereas the High Court in Masaka had stopped councilors from discussing the matter, it was number one on the order paper and some councillors, led by Rose Namayengo and Henry Mulindwa, insisted on discussing it.
“If Kisekulo sued the council, we are the ones he sued and we must get a way forward. We cannot sit back and wait for the court to summon this august house without getting a communication from the technical team,†Mulindwa said.
Mulindwa, Namayengo and other councillors are opposed to Kisekulo being the secretary of finance. They want Semakula to throw him out of office before they pass the district budget.
Agnes Namusiitwa, the woman councillor for Kyebe and Kakuuto sub- counties, said it was unwise to put Kiseluo’s issue on the order paper in a budget meeting.
“We would have discussed the budget, passed it and let the technical staff work for our voters. People in the villages will suffer because of this very council they voted to work for them,†Namusiitwa said.