By The Insight Post Uganda
Mukono-Uganda
Elisa Mukasa Nkoyoyo, the Mayor of Mukono Municipality, appears to have been stripped of his rights and authority to carry out his duties as a mayor since his swearing-in and assumption of office in 2021.
According to Nkoyoyo, he has repeatedly requested reports on activity implementation and audits for review from the town clerk’s office, but has not received any.
As a political head of the municipality, Nkoyoyo is responsible for monitoring the overall administration and overseeing the performance of civil servants. Nkoyoyo was elected into office on the National Unity Platform-NUP, so far the country’s leading opposition party.
The mayor has further accused the office of the town clerk of initiating projects without his knowledge, which has made his supervisory role difficult.
Consequently, he believes, this practice has resulted in uncontrolled mismanagement of funds, corrupt practices in the awarding of contracts and tenders, and the recruitment of incompetent personnel.
As a result, the quality of services delivered by the municipality has suffered a lot. “So, if this situation is not rectified immediately, I will be compelled to suspend executive meetings, and may also request the council to suspend its sittings to assess the ability of technocrats to execute their mandate if at all what they want,” Nkoyoyo warns.
The Insight Post Uganda has established that during the municipal executive meetings, town clerks submit lists of activities being implemented without providing details of execution.
“I believe that this situation has resulted in the awarding of contracts to substandard service providers and the construction of shoddy works in the municipality,” he says.
Some of the contracts that have been hotly debated include the contract for street parking collection, which was awarded to Joseneous Investment Limited.
Additionally, there are the garbage collection contracts, which were awarded to De Waste to manage garbage in Goma Division, and Bins Kampala Limited, which manages garbage in the Central Division.
Furthermore, Namakya Enterprises Limited was awarded the contract to manage the landfill at Katikoro.
Nkoyoyo asserts that the municipal council has limited information regarding the processes through which contracts were awarded and how the municipality stands to benefit from them. Projects currently being implemented include road maintenance and construction of the municipal headquarters.
Nkoyoyo admits to observing engineers who show up to maintain roads and construct the headquarters, but he lacks detailed knowledge of their work.
“Moreover, none of the technical staff goes out to supervise the works, and I fear that without proper supervision, shoddy work will continue to be evident in the municipality,” he says, noting that they lack the necessary foundation for effective supervision.
According to Vincent Lubwama, a councilor at Mukono Municipality, it is unacceptable for the technical wing to withhold important information from the mayor’s office, given that the mayor is their overall supervisor.
“Usually, everyone turns to the mayor’s office for information on various issues, and if the mayor is not provided with the necessary information, it becomes difficult for us to assess and monitor budgeted activities effectively,” Lubwama notes.
Furthermore, Lubwama believes that the technical officials’ behaviour suggests that there may be corrupt practices taking place within their ranks.
The new town clerk, Francis Byabagambi, who has been in office for three weeks, has yet to address the matter and ensure that the queries raised are resolved.
However, he acknowledges that the mayor has the right to receive all relevant information concerning the administration of the municipality.
Byabagambi took over from Godfrey Kisekka, who was recently reshuffled to Gulu city as the new town clerk.
Before his departure, Kisekka and his deputy, Luboyera Majerani, were under investigation by a seven-member committee appointed by the council over unpaid hotel bills amounting to approximately Ugx60 million arising from the purported committee sittings.
According to preliminary investigations presented by the area member of parliament, Betty Nambooze, Alvers Hotel located along Katosi road claimed that the officials spent the money meant for the committee sittings on alcohol and food and left without settling the bills.
They advised the hotel to demand payment from the municipal finance department since the money was spent on committee sittings.
Simon Ogwal Kajura, the Director of Anti-corruption at the Inspectorate of Government, has reported observing corruption tendencies during a recent visit to Mukono. Kajura stated that his team is set to investigate these tendencies, beginning with the procurement process used to award contracts at the municipality.
Protests
In recent months, the municipality has experienced several protests from residents who are demanding efficient services since they pay taxes.
During one of the protests, residents and the business community raised concerns about the high garbage fees charged by the service provider known as “Bins Kampala Limited.”
The residents claimed that they were paying between Ugx18,000 and Ugx40,000 every month for the garbage collected from their homes. The problem arose due to the municipality’s failure to establish a fee collection policy for garbage collection from households.
In November of last year, the councillors of Mukono Central Division in Mukono Municipality protested against the town clerk, Godfrey Kisekka’s decision to reappoint Ismael Mulamuzi Ssemyalo as principal assistant town clerk without the approval of the service commission.
Ssemyalo had previously been interdicted by Kisekka in January of 2022 on allegations of mismanagement of collected revenue, failure to supervise division staff, improper collection of local revenue, diversion, and misuse of funds.
At the time, the municipal leadership was struggling to raise local revenue and fund planned activities, such as garbage collection and road construction and maintenance using local revenue. This put Ssemyalo under the spotlight and resulted in audit queries against him.
According to Allan Mawanda, the Division Speaker, the town clerk has not presented to them the defence filed against the audit report conducted against his assistant and the basis for lifting the ban.
Mawanda notes that during Ssemyalo’s ten-year tenure at the Central Division, the budget did not go beyond Ugx1.5 billion. “However, in just one year during his absence, the budget has increased to 2 billion plus,” he asserts.
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