By John B. Thawite
The Kasese district budget for the financial year ending has suffered a major blow arising from reduced donor funding.
According to the district vice chairperson, Elly Magwara, the district had by end of April realised only 890.655m/= out of the expected Shs2,031,655,000 to from Unicef, putting the district budget performance at 41%.
“At the mid-term evaluation at the end of December 2016, adjustments were made on donor support from Shs Shs2,031b to 890.655m/= due to the poor performance from Unicef where disbursements had been affected due to the global economic recession,” Magwara noted.
Magwara, who also doubles as secretary for finance, planning and administration, wason Friday presenting the 2017/2018 financial year budget estimates, worth Shs57, 345,894,051 during the Council sitting held at the district multipurpose hall.
The district had estimated to spend up from Shs53,449,348,000 in the year ending, he said..
But he said the district had continued to budget for Unicef support despite poor performance during the year ending “because the organisation has indicated that they will support the district again.”
Revenue sources
Magwara said the district expected to raise the Shs57,345,894,051 from local revenue (shs1.916,370,000), Central Government (53,097,868,551) and Shs2,331,655,500 from donors, accounting for 3.4%, 92..% and 4.1% respectively.
If the 57,345,894,051/= for service delivery were to be distributed among the residents, each person would have only Shs81,686 to spend on services in the entire 2017/2018 financial year.
Expenditure
He said salaries, including pension and gratuity, are to consume a total of Shs36,631,221,921 or 64% while 11.4bn of the revenue will be spent on recurrent activities to support decentralisation and key service delivery projects.
Shs 4.3bn is to go to development projects especially health, education, roads and production while donor about Shs2.331bn is to go into donor development projects.
He challenged the district leaders to engage the community for additional revenue.
Past achievements
Outlining a catalogue of achievements, which included class room blocks, roads, the district chairman, Godfrey Sibendire Bigogo, he said district had also undertaken the construction of other projects including mini-Irrigation schemes to mitigate the unpredictable weather patterns.
“People owning land along roads should grow trees to avert the increasingly negative climatic changes in the district,” Bigogo urged.
District Budget at glance
Administration: 6,013,154,675, Finance: 386,873,000., Statutory bodies: 871,280,000, Production and Marketing: 827,546,439, Health: 9,727,617,317, Education – 29,387,461,506, Roads and engineering:2,663,235,865, Water: 793,237858, Natural resources: 683,649,859, Community-Based Services: 2,434,511,401, Planning Unit: 753,908,388, Internal Audit: 76,873,000, Transfers to lower local governments: 2,720,671,744.
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