HOW CAN THE POOR SUPERVISE THE RICH

During the training of elected leaders at Kyarumba Sub county, Kasese district on Monday 24th Feb. 2014, the Kyarumba Sub county Chairperson Mr. Yokonia Mbahimba wondered how the poor councilors could supervise the rich technical staff. " how can the poor councilors who earn nothing at the end of the month supervise the rich technical staff who draw a pay cheque at the end of the month" The chairperson was responding to questions why the councilors had not monitored the opening of school term on 3rd Feb. 2014.

Mr. Yokonia Mbahimba (Standing) responding to questions as to why the sub county councilors had not monitored the opening of term on 3rd Feb. 2014

The facilitator Mr. Joshua Masereka (former Kasese district Vice Chairperson) asked the participants majority of whom were councilors ( 14) if they knew the total sub county budget of 2013/14, only the speaker and the executive responded and they did not also know the exact amount. It was surprised for those who discussed and passed the budget how they were not aware of the budget which they supervise and monitor. The RWECO Coordinator, then took the participants through a checklist of the Kasese district budget as:
Total Kasese district Budget 2013/14 Ugx 41bn: Summary of the district budget:

Revenue Performance and Plans

2012/13 Approved Budget    Receipts by End June UShs 000's	2013/14 Approved Budget
1. Locally Raised Revenues                                                                                                   675,018                    483,373 2a. Discretionary Government Transfers                                                                            3,394,234                 2,422,002 2b. Conditional Government Transfers                                                                            27,644,040               27,889,922 2c. Other Government Transfers                                                                                        2,064,361                 1,387,885 3. Local Development Grant                                                                                                  666,062                    511,416 4. Donor Funding                                                                                                                4,294,302                 3,188,877		857,250 3,486,001 31,106,623 2,317,919 624,085 2,591,961
Total Revenues                                                                                                                 38,738,017               35,883,475		40,983,839

Expenditure Performance and Plans

2012/13 Approved Budget                       Actual Expenditure by UShs 000's                                                                                                end of June	2013/14 Approved Budget
1a Administration                                                                            2,567,261                    1,666,560 2 Finance                                                                                          1,539,835                    1,176,568 3 Statutory Bodies                                                                               740,218                       379,636 4 Production and Marketing                                                            3,382,201                    2,672,647 5 Health                                                                                            4,145,530                    3,901,003 6 Education                                                                                    20,095,116                  15,971,669 7a Roads and Engineering                                                               4,665,677                    3,100,948 7b Water                                                                                              725,490                       531,189 8 Natural Resources                                                                              74,523                       242,967 9 Community Based Services                                                             568,403                       335,596 10 Planning                                                                                         178,518                       116,840 11 Internal Audit                                                                                   55,245                         26,977	2,988,501 1,291,692 838,994 3,339,176 7,373,109 21,126,696 2,131,061 1,021,447 136,686 481,838 197,393 43,864
Grand Total                                                                                  38,738,016                  30,122,601 Wage Rec't:                              19,947,230                  15,283,141 Non Wage Rec't:                                9,397,290                    7,535,381 Domestic Dev't                                5,099,194                    4,123,274 Donor Dev't                                4,294,302                    3,180,804	40,970,458 23,880,391 8,635,373 5,862,733 2,591,961

 

Production and Marketing budget was used as the case study during the training whose total budget was Ugx. 3.3 bn of which Ugx. 2.1bn was allocated to Naads sector. Kyarumba sub county Naads budget was Ugx. 85 million. When asked how much had been remitted to the sub county by December 2013, the LCIII chairperson asked the NAADs Coordinator to explain to the participants. Ms. Emmunuelina Nzabake, the Sub county NAADs Coordinator reported that the sub county had received Ugx.42,147,000/ in the last two quarters. The NAADs Coordinator also reported that, the beneficiaries were: Food security: 170 Farmers, Market Oriented 20. But the councilors were not aware of the total number of beneficiaries in their respective parishes.
The Community Development Officer reported on Education as:

Total number of Schools 16
Number of Grades: PLE 2013 grade one: 12
Sub county population: 35,000
Asked whether they know the schools and pupils who passed in grade one, the councilors were hesitant and pledged to go to the field and verify the information given by the CDO. However, it was noted that, PLE performance were improving since 2011 due to the intervention of many  actors including CSOs, Church and parents participation.

Participants at the Kyarumba Sub county on 24th Feb. 2014

As a way forward the participants came up with the following:
1.  Organise budget review on 14th March, 2014. To review the 2013/14 budget performance for which the councilors resolved not be paid only the  chief should provide Lunch.
2. Monitoring of the NAADS beneficiaries in the sub county by 14th March, 2014
3. Feed back meetings by all councilors- after the budget review meeting
4. Leaders in Kyarumba Sub county be role models in food security and sanitation - ongoing
5. Promotion of Commercial farming- NAADs Coordinator guide the leaders and citizens on enterprise selection.
6. Localise the citizens manifesto in Action  to the Kyarumba Sub county scenario

Other concerns during the training were the food shortage in Kasese district where it was observed that despite receiving Ugx. 2.1bn from NAADs Kasese district still depended on Kabarole and Bushenyi districts for food. It was noted that on a weekly basis Kasese district citizens spend Ugx. 4 million on buying food from Mawa Market, resulting into Ugx. 192 Million per year only on Matooke. It was also noted that if citizens can spend Ugx. 192 to buy Matooke what about fish, cassava and other house hold essentials. That expenditure on food was reflected in the quality of education in Kasese compared to Kabarole where parents pay for the education of their children. Kyarumba sub county with a budget of Ugx. 182 Million could not even produce enough food for its citizens, instead citizens have resorted to environmental degradation like charcoal burning, timber cutting for which the sub county could not collect local revenue. The participants were moved by the analysis above and asked KALI/RWECO to support the sub county in coming up with a revenue enhancement plan, sensitize the sub county councilor on the Local Economic Development (LED) where the sub county was piloting construction of arch bridges.

Reported by:
1. Agnes K
2. Medrace B
3. Obedi M
4. Jimmy B.O