KAMPALA – Nakawa Division Urban Councillors have been trained in budgeting to enable them to lobby and advocate better for the people they represent.
The two day training that was organised Community Integrated Development Initiative (CIDI) at the division headquarters in Nakawa saw councillors from the various zones in Nakawa take part to understand the opportunities in understanding the budgeting process.
90% of the councillors are first time leaders who are not conversant with the way budgeting is done to empower them and ensure effective service delivery.
Mr Paul Mugambe, the Mayor Nakawa division said the training is important to them as leaders since everything revolves around the budget.
He explained that his council is new and they have first time leaders who need to be trained because the people they work with are technical people and they (councillors) need to be empowered to try and match up.
“When we know the budgeting process, it helps us monitor and safeguard taxpayers’ money. In Nakawa, we have a garbage problem, we want to invest in reusing this garbage. Through this, women and youth will get employment opportunities to earn a livelihood. We also want to buy cars that will collect it (the garbage). These are some of the many things we would love to include in the budgeting process,” he said.
CIDI took up the training of newly elected youth leaders of both local and central government because they (CIDI) discovered that these leaders had not undergone any training in regard to what they are supposed to do and how to involve themselves in the different processes of government in the areas they represent.
According to Ms Hellen Kasujja, the deputy Executive Director of CIDI, they organised the training to prepare the councillors as they engage in the budgeting process.
Kasujja explained that much as government orients the councillors, they don’t get enough time to be mentored in budgeting.
“The budgeting process is their role as they represent their people. Every financial year councillors plan how to ably lobby for their people and if not educated on this, they risk being used to do other roles contrary to what they are meant to do and technical teams end up taking their roles which results in conflicts,” she shares.
Ms Kasujja revealed they want the councillors to understand the planning and budgeting process of government since they have a role to ensure that all resources are equitably distributed.
She shared that the number of councillors that understand the process is below 20%, a number that needs working on.
Mr Godfrey Luyombya the speaker of Nakawa Urban Council shared that one of the things that make leaders fail to implement their works is budgeting.
He explained that if they don’t know how the national cake is distributed then they can’t effectively manage it.
“I thank CIDI for engaging us, we have got knowledge and enough documents that will make us make informed decisions in the budgeting process. One of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that thrive one’s leadership is budgeting. We are already in the financial year and have registered loopholes we din’t know and now we are going to sum up these to create impact.”
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