KCCA Questioned Over 13.5 Billion Returned to Consolidated Funds

Members of Parliament(MPs) have questioned Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) for returning to the consolidated fund 4.898 billion Shillings that is meant for the recruitment of teachers and health workers.

MPs on the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises – COSASE which is head by honurable Joel Ssenyonyi raised concerns on the returned funds while meeting KCCA technical team led by the Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka on Thursday.

These interrogations follow the Auditor General’s report of December 2022 that highlighted that out of the 313.67 billion Shillings allocated to KCCA in the financial year 2021/2022, the Authority spent 303.11 billion leaving a balance of  13.56 billion Shillings unspent.

As stated in the report, 1.734 billion was returned due to the delayed recruitment of health workers and 3.164 billion was meant for the recruitment of secondary school teachers.     However, the KCCA officials were ignorant of what the other 8 billion Shillings were meant for.   The Committee Chairperson, Joel Ssenyonyi, wondered why KCCA could not spend the funds yet schools and health facilities are battling staff shortages or scarcity.

The Kyadondo East County Member of Parliament Muwada Nkunyingi, cited Komamboga Health Centre III in Kampala where he occasionally helped to transport patients to neighboring Kasangati Health Centre after discovering that the facility is understaffed.

 

However, Grace Okello the KCCA’s Director of Human Resource and Administration, informed the Committee that KCCA made a submission for the recruitment of 42 health workers in April 2022, but the process was abandoned following the increment of salaries of health workers and science teachers.

On February 2023, the Lord Mayor, Elias Lukwago criticized the poor performance of KCCA public schools in Kampala attributing it to understaffing across 79 government grant-aided primary schools in the Capital City.

Statistics indicate that of the 38,105 pupils who sat for Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) in 2021 in KCCA schools, 1,930 candidates failed compared to 1,266 in the previous year 2020. The best two candidates in these schools both scored Five aggregates and the second best scored Six aggregates

Statistics from Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) indicated that KCCA schools registered 12,896 candidates in Division One, 17,402 in Division Two, 3,451 in Division Three, 2,426 in Division Four 1,333 ungraded, and 597 in grade X.

Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago attributed the poor performance to under funding, the limited number of teachers and an overwhelming teacher-pupil ratio, poor infrastructure, government’s automatic promotion policy, among others.