OPINION BY:
KAGENYI LUKKA
D/RDC MANAFWA
AT his inauguration on May 12 last year, The Head of State, President Yoweri Museveni, listed cohesion, zero-tolerance to corruption, regional integration, patriotism and service delivery as the core five deliverables under the current five-year new term (2021-2026).
This was not only a clarion call to people in Government, but to the entire country, especially when it comes to service delivery and the urgent need to transform 39% of Ugandan homesteads that are currently living under subsistence or traditional lifestyles.
Ensuring service delivery is top of my agenda in Manafwa district. To achieve this, as the Deputy Resident District Commissioner, I have organised a series of events geared at monitoring Government projects in Manafwa and ensuring accountability.
The key event that will shape these accountability activities is the Accountability Day, which has been designated for Monday August 8, 2022.
In particular, all Heads of Departments at the district, Chief Administrative Officer, Sub-County Chiefs and Parish Chiefs are expected to account to the public.
It should also be noted that those who will sabotage the accountability day by not appearing or giving funny excuses will be strongly dealt with by Police and other authorities.
This Accountability Day has been designed to create a value for money system in Manafwa District where all Government employees and contractors will openly account to the public on the implementation of projects. It should not be taken lightly by those that are required to account.
It will also act as a monitoring vehicle for various Government projects in the District and also re-activate the duty of all citizens to combat corruption and misuse or wastage of public property as enshrined under Article 17 of the Uganda Constitution.
To improve public service delivery in Manafwa, I have also organised community forums-popularly known as barazas where citizens will interact with district officials and civil servants on a number of issues, including explaining to them the delays and slow-pace service delivery in their respective areas.
We have also embarked on direct field monitoring tours of Government projects in the district, especially roads, schools, health facilities, among others to ensure that value for money is registered.
These field tours have also helped us to directly get feedback from the public, who have proposed several mechanisms on how to ensure service delivery and accountability in the district.
The citizens have also made requests on the need to improve agricultural extension services, farm input distribution, access to clean drinking water, among other needs that can be easily delivered if public servants are held accountable.
Away from the accountability task we have embarked on, I spent the last two weeks sensitizing district leaders, including Sub-County Chiefs, district council leaders, Parish Chiefs and other elected officials on the need to squarely implement the Parish Development Model (PDM), which our leader, President Museveni, launched in February at Kibuku Primary School in Bukedi sub-region.
The need to cautiously handle the Parish Development Model funds, weeding out bureaucracy and red-tape, favouristism and corruption is the key message I have given leaders because if the Parish development Model is handled properly, it will act as a magic bullet for the much-needed transformation of 39% homesteads that are trapped in traditional methods of survival.
Therefore, I strongly believe that Accountability Day will act as a mechanism to constantly keep Government officials on tenterhooks in order for them to delivery services and work around the clock to elevate citizens from the traditional ways of life into the money economy, mainly through commercial agriculture.
I also appeal to all leaders and public officials in Manafwa district to cooperate as we account to people as enjoined by the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, which provides that all public offices shall be held in trust for the people.
The writer Kagenyi Lukka is the Deputy RDC Manafwa District and a staunch Musevenist
