KABAROLE DISTRICT HOLDS BUDGET CONFERENCE

The District Budget conference as planned was held at kalya courts Fort-portal yesterday on 22^nd January 2013, by   9:00am when I reported at the venue, majority of participants who were councilors, District staff, CSOs representatives and Lower Local Government staff had finalized with their breakfast and ready to participate in the conference. As the District chairperson Hon. Richard Rwabuhinga, opened the meeting noted that the 2013 budget is aimed at improving service delivery and enhancement of household incomes, he remarked that among  the priorities for Kabarole this  year is completion of the District headquarters and construction of the Buhinga  stadium. the stadium was viewed as a source of local revenue I learnt from him the challenges accruing from decentralization where the District encounters delays in quarterly release of funds, while quoting the case of last year “the central Government deposited 144m on the District account on 30^th June” how were they expecting the District to spend   that money  in 4 hours? in such cases the funds have been returned to the central Government,  He also noted that the funds of Luweero-Rwenzori had not been received and yet the beneficiaries were eagerly waiting, In a nutshell he called upon the ministry of Finance ,planning and economic development to address those gaps so that the citizens can enjoy better services. the District Chairperson also informed the participants that they were in high resource mobilization gears to address the challenge  of  high HIV/AIDS  prevalence  in the District. He appreciated the growing partnership with the NGOs  in the past year  which contributed to better information sharing,  however  urged  NGOs  to   maintain that spirit.

Interesting to learn was the plant clinic project of  which the District production and marketing officer, Mr Mugume Amos reported that  three plant doctors  had been  trained and deployed (Mrs Grace kyomya, Gerry Balikuraira and veronica kabanyoro) in the Rwaihamba, Mugusu and kasunganyanja markets to assist in early detection of plant diseases and offering  on spot   technical advice to farmers .  with over three years in  plant clinics  RIC-NET  has adequate expertise to train  and build the capacity of new  plant Doctors alongside the District. We look forward to more partnership with the Local Government in 2013.