Sh15.3b Budget for proposed Kikuube district passed

The new Kikuuba district was curved out of Hoima district

BUDGET 

HOIMA - Hoima district council has passed a sh15.3b budget for the 2018/19 financial year to operationalise the newly created Kikuube district.

Kikuube, which was to be curved out of Hoima, is one of 25 districts the Parliament approved in 2015.

In 2010, Hoima district council unanimously approved the creation of Kikuube district under the pretext that it would improve service delivery, governance and create more jobs.

However, the new district, which is supposed to take the boundaries of Buhaguzi county, had received opposition from a section of politicians.

The politicians argued that it is likely to deprive the mother district of the key natural resources such as oil wells, the most productive part of Lake Albert and forest reserves.

They wanted the new district halted, adding that the Government should instead expedite plans to elevate Hoima municipality to a city status.

Presenting the budgets for the Hoima and Kikube districts before council at the district headquarters in Kasingo, Hoima municipality on Thursday, the district secretary for finance and planning, Bernadette Plan, said the budget for the proposed Kikuube district was drafted as the district would become operational in July.

The council was presided over by its speaker, Nathan Isingoma Kitwe.

Plan said they had a proposed budget of sh15.3b for Kikuube and sh16.2b for Hoima.

Hoima district in the 2017/18 fiscal year passed a sh27b budget. This implies the budget had to be divided to cater for the solvent needs of the new Kikuube district.

However, in a phone interview on Saturday, Plan did not divulge how money would be allocated to each sector, adding that they would first sit in sectoral committees with the technical wing and decide on the allocations.

The same council also approved a recruitment plan for Kikuube district, where over 90 civil servants would be hired.

Plan said, in the meantime, they would use some of the civil servants from the mother district until the recruitment is done.

The district chairperson, Kadiri Kirungi, expressed concern over the low revenue generation in the district, which he said was hampering service delivery.