Residents in Waggala parish, Nagojje sub county, Mukono District are calling for a public audit and the interdiction of Mr William Nduga, a parish chief said to have embezzled money meant for local revenue.
The residents held a meeting on Wednesday evening, accused the government official of not being up to the task as he forces to residents and business owners to immediately pay taxes with forged receipts.
The receipts are said not to be holding the official Mukono District Council stamp and seal while many of the residents are also forced to pay without receipts.
“After money is collected, we expect that it is taken to the district accounts. However, we are always dismayed to be told that all the money we collect does not reach the Mukono Senior Finance Office and the Local Revenue Accounts,” says Kassim Kintu one of the residents.
Led by James Kimera, the Nagojje Sub County representative at the District council, the residents also wonder why the current parish chief does not engage in the sensitization of people to understand why the pay taxes but only come to forcefully take away money from the locals which they say, satisfy the chief and his associates.
“It takes long for him to come here and, instead of taking all our resources to the coffers, they become his savings. We demand to understand when and how he became a parish chief,” James Kimera, the area councilor says.
Nduga has acted as a parish chief in the sub county for more than 10 years. He is said to have joined as a Senior Six graduate before joining YMCA for a Diploma in Public Administration.
However, sources close to Nduga indicated that the academic documents remain questionable.
Mukono District has 18 sub county and 80 parishes. The parishes and sub counties combined contribute up to Ugx 1.58 billion as locally generated revenue.
Each sub county receives 35% of the generated revenue in the area as 65% of the revenue is deliberated to the district. However, 25% of the money deliberated to the district is sent back to the village.
It is upon such background that the residents demand that the parish chief is interdicted so as to get a fresh and ready to work official.
“It is on the 25% that our villages can act and repair things like wells, boreholes and roads. If our money is not deliberated to the right channels, we shall fail get enough remitted money and thus will never act,” another resident says.
The residents allege, more than Ugx 21 million is defrauded from the area every quarter (three months) from the solicited local revenue.
The District Chairperson for Mukono Peter Bakaluba Mukasa recently said there needs to be a reshuffle and total overhaul of all Sub county and parish chiefs to ensure that there is enough accountability.
Nduga, the contested parish chief, when contacted refused to comment on the matter.
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