Councilors of Lira Municipal council have blocked the new financial year budget citing gross abuse of funds by technocrats. The shillings 11 billion budget was tabled by Alex Ogwal Etwop, the Lira Municipal council secretary for Finance and administration on Thursday for approval. He said shillings 4.9 billion had been budgeted for road construction and the education sector 3.1 billion shillings. He said the rest of the money would be spent on key sectors such as Health, Water and Administration.
However, the councilors refused to approve the budget estimates accusing the technical officers of gross abuse of funds. Bosco Aryono Ongom, the councilor Te-Obia parish in Central Division accused the technical officers of deliberately allocating themselves fat allowances yet the councilors earn peanuts. Aryono also alleged that Lira Municipality has been losing huge sums of money from local revenue collection through financial mismanagement and corruption.
George Mawaa, the LC III councilor Barogole Parish in Ojwina division said despite the fact that Lira Municipality collects a lot of money in local revenue, the money ends up in the pockets of individuals. He proposed that a special committee be set up to investigate the loss of revenue in Railways, Adyel, Ojwina and central divisions.
As a result, the councilors resolved to stay the approval of the budget until August 24th in order to scrutinize it further and also appointed a committee to investigate the alleged corruption. Four of the Committee members include Aryono Ongom, Walter Abura, Geofrey Opio Omolo and Costa Elong. The decision by the councilors to block the new financial year budget didn’t go down well with Etwop. He told URN that he was shocked by the decision by the councilors to block the budget for more than two weeks.
//cue in: “I was surprised……………………
Cue out: ……..this budget about a month ago”//
Christopher Daniel Kaweesi, the town clerk Lira Municipality dismissed the allegations of financial mismanagement as rumors saying there is no evidence to substantiate the claims. He explained that if the allegations were true, they would have been captured in the auditor general’s report.
Kaweesi sadi the council would continue operating on a vote on account until the councilors approve the new financial year budget. Last year, councilors of Lira Municipality blocked the budget for the 2011/2012 financial year while accusing the then town clerk Paul Omoko of failing to increase the emoluments.
