Divisional councilors in Kampala Capital Authority-KCCA are protesting the allocation of huge sums of money on political monitoring in the city budget instead of injecting it in key sectors like health that suffer meager funding. Recently, KCCA presented its 2012/2013 financial year budget showing that shillings 2.5 billion had been allocated for political monitoring of projects in the authority.
The money will be spent on paying allowances for the political leadership of the authority for carrying supervisory work. However, the allocation of such a huge amount of fund on political monitoring has not gone down well with some councilors.
Bob Mpiima, the chairperson of Kampala City Councilor’s Forum says that the money should instead be re-allocated to the purchase of ambulances for the six health centers in the authority.
He argues that procuring ambulances would help ease the transportation of patients to health centers within the city area instead of spending on allowances.
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Hanifah Mpungu, the councilor for Kampala Central Division agrees. According to Mpungu, this year’s budget should have prioritized the improvement of health service delivery. She says that during emergency many city residents find a big challenge to access health service due to lack of transport.
Andrew Kirigwajjo, the councilor for Lubaga division says that in the last financial year only shillings 1 billion was allocated to political monitoring, but this time the money has more than doubled.
However, Sulaiman Kidandala, the Kampala deputy lord mayor says that they have budgeted shillings 5.5 billion to buy ambulances for all city health centers, and vehicles for the political heads. He says appeals to the councilors to calm down saying that the procurement process of the ambulances and leader’s cars is ongoing.
