There was a heated debate in Gulu district council on Monday after councilors discovered that the district failed to utilize 1.3 billion shillings in the last financial year.
The district councilors demanded to know why the district didn’t spend the money despite the fact that there are several activities that ought to be implemented in a district recovering from decades of war.
The news about the unused money emerged when district chairman Martin Ojara Mapenduzi was presenting the budget review for the new financial year.
He said that while the district has proposed a 33 billion shillings budget for the new financial year, 1.3 billion of it was money they had failed to spend in the last financial year.
Soon after, a heated debate emerged as every councilor sought to know circumstances that stopped the utilization of the money despite the huge demand for social services and development activities.
Kenneth Nyeko, the LC5 councilor for Ongako Sub County said it was embarrassing for the leaders to fail to utilize such an amount of money when there are hundreds of people in need of service. He pressed Mapenduzi to disclose the names of the persons responsible for the neglect.
Alfred Okwonga, Pece division councilor said that it was even more suspicious that the unutilized money has been included in the budget for the new financial year.
However, Mapenduzi explained that the district was forced to carry the money into the new financial year after the ministry of finance made a late disbursement. He said that although there are planned activities for implementation, the process to award contracts usually takes a long time.
He also allayed fears that the district could miss out on the money saying that he had got clearance from the ministry of finance to keep the money and carry it forward into the next financial year
The funds were meant to among others open new water sources, fund income generating activities under the NAADS program as well as buy desks and scholastic materials.
