GULU – Gulu City Council is seeking the approval of a Shs3.4 billion supplementary budget from Parliament in order to smoothly operate.
The City Council has already gone five months without any money released by the Ministry of Finance following Parliament’s failure to approve the supplementary budget after it went on recess for the Christmas holidays.
Alfred Okwonga, the Gulu City Mayor says, council activities including; monitoring, garbage management among others have been greatly affected by the lack of money.
Okwonga further says all the councillors including the divisional and city councilors have had three sittings and their allowances have not yet been paid.
Currently, utility bills amounting to more than Shs100 million have been accrued at the Gulu Main Market in addition to other social services yet to be cleared for the five-months period.
“Most of our activities including; monitoring schools, health facilities, paying for utility bills like electricity and water have all been grounded because we don’t have any money. We have had three council sittings and none of the councilors has received any allowances for these sittings,” said Okwonga.
“We cannot continue operating like this, especially when we are collecting billions in local revenue which we remit to the consolidated fund and our people are not served at the end of the day. People begin to look at us as bad leaders who can`t deliver services to them,” Okwonga bitterly complained.
Florence Lalam, the Female City Councilor for Laroo Pece division in a recent interview said, they were contemplating closing all the offices of the two divisions and the city council in protest for delayed payment by the government to transfer the funds they have already collected.
“If the government cannot remit funds to us, as city councilors we have resolved that we will close the offices of the two divisions, and the city council. Why should they be open if we cannot render services to our people?” Lalam warned.
“My people need safe, clean and well-lit facilities for them to normally go about with their businesses, like in the Gulu main market,” says Lalam.
Moses Otimong, the Gulu City Town Clerk in a recent interview with our reporter said, in this financial year, the city was allocated only Shs 491 million which has been depleted. He says, they have so far collected local revenue tax of more than Shs 2 billion and it is sitting idle in the consolidated fund.
Gulu City is among the new cities that were approved and launched by the government in June 2020.
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