DR. MESARCH WRITES OPEN LETTER TO SHEEMA MAYOR OVER MISUSED WORLD BANK PROJECT

His Worship Abel Kahara, Mayor Sheema Municipality

CC Mayor, Kagango Division
CC Honorable Speaker Sheema Municipality Council
CC Honorable Councilors Sheema Municipality
CC Honourable Councilors Kagango Division

Dear Mayor,

Your worship, over the weekend (to be exact Sunday 13th January, 2019) I got time to visit Rwentobo Primary School in Kihunda Ward Kagango Division. It is one of the schools that benefited from the World Bank $100 million grant to Uganda for construction of 84 schools around the country under its Global Partnership for Education (GPE) project as support towards the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP), which seeks to improve teacher and school effectiveness in the public primary education system. Construction works are almost done and according to the residents the buildings are about to be commissioned anytime soon. The beneficiary schools are supposed to receive quality classroom blocks built to high standards; school administration blocks, water and sanitation facilities and teacher housing.
Mr. Mayor, after the church service at Rwentobo Church of Uganda, concerned residents together with a section of members of school management took me around construction site! There is an improvement from the old dilapidated buildings we studied in in the early 1980s. For the newly constructed buildings using World Bank funds, one can visibly see cracks everywhere on the floor and ceiling. The shoddy works are so visible that casts doubt on the quality of the buildings to be handed over to the management of the school. The school management are right to be worried. I told them the only thing they can do is to voice their concerns to the Mayor of the municipality. I told them I will also do my work as a concerned citizen to raise these concerns to the authorities. However, I warned them to come out and use all legal mechanisms to ensure value for money for projects constructed in tax payers name. The residents also complained of being left out in the formulation and monitoring of this WB school project and were wondering how they will be called upon to receive such structures that smell corruption and abuse of public funds.
Your worship, one of the tenets of good governance is participation of citizens in planning, budgeting, implementation of government programs and monitoring and evaluation. In order for participation to yield the required benefits, citizens should know the roles and responsibilities of leaders and be informed about the different stages at which they can participate in decision making and related governance processes. In fact according to the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda, the state is supposed to take all necessary steps to involve the people in the formulation and implementation of development plans and programmes which affect them.
Your worship, I write this because I am performing my duty as a citizen. According to the constitution of the Republic of Uganda, it shall be the duty of every citizen to be patriotic and loyal to Uganda and to promote its well-being and to contribute to the well-being of the community where that citizen lives. It is also a duty of every citizen to help in combating corruption and misuse or wastage of public property.
Your worship, I am writing to you because you are the political head of Sheema Municipality at least theoretically according to the laws of the Republic of Uganda. You work with councilors to enable the district and central government to achieve their objectives. The councils are set up in a way that enables them perform their functions. Each council has an Executive Committee and Standing/ Working committees through which council conducts its business and makes decisions. I am emphasizing this because we have seen previously where national leaders such as Members of Parliament act and behave as if they are local council leaders. Many times they usurp powers of local councils and behave as if they are political heads of districts and municipalities. In masquerading as political heads, they at times issue illegal directives to the Town Clerks and District Chairpersons. Either knowingly or unknowingly local councils have abdicated their responsibilities and left it to national politicians like MPs who have no time and supportive structures for monitoring government programs. The consequence has been inefficient and ineffective delivery of government services. A case in point is the rural electrification agency services that has completely been abused by national politicians especially MPs. You must have heard of residents being fleeced of their hard earned money so they can access free rural electrification agency (REA) services; failure for REA to survey all areas and cells of the municipality. All this is brought about by national politicians hijacking the power of local leaders such as mayors and councils who are closer to the people being served and therefore can ably monitor and evaluate the implementation of government programs at the local level.

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