REVEALED! Here’s why divisions, Mbarara City Council are @ war

BY AMOS TAYEBWA

MBARARA CITY Council leadership is in trouble after City Division Councils (Mbarara City South and Mbarara City North) resolved to drag their mother council for court over their money amounting to about Shs2.2bn. Basing on recommendations by the Finance Committee of Mbarara City North during their recent council sitting, the division council decided to sue Mbarara City Council over their failure to pay their money from property tax and remittances / consolidated funds.

The same resolution was passed by Mbarara City South who also demand lots of money from Mbarara City Council. According to sources, the two divisions demand about Shs2,252,000,000 from the City Council. The money was supposed to be paid to the two divisions as return for the Financial Year 2022/2023. The Financial year ended on 30th June 2023 when the money had not yet been paid.

The Divisions are failing to deliver services due to lack of funds/ resources to provide services to people. Mbarara City South Division demands about Shs1,612,000,000 and part of this money (Shs1,410,000,000) is for property tax while Shs202,000,000 is for remittances/ consolidated funds. Mbarara City North Division demands about Shs640,000,000 where Shs544, 000,000 is for property tax while Shs96,000,000 is for remittances. Gumisiriza Kyabwisho, one of the Division mayors, says that as Divisions, they have failed to deliver some services to people due to the fact that the City Council has failed to pay their money. He said that they have for several occasions engaged the City Council leaders especially the Town Clerk, Assy Abireebe and the Mayor Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi about their money but nothing fruitful has come out of their engagement.

He added that the division collects revenue from the people and sends it to the city. He said that in return they expect to have their share of 50% from the money they send to the City Council. However it’s very unfortunate that up to now the city council has refused to pay the money which they are supposed to pay to these divisions. “We have had a very big challenge with the Center (the City Council) about our money. We have collected a lot of money and sent it to the City Council as revenue. We have also given them money from property tax but we have never gotten any refund from the centre,” he said. “We have made a resolution to petition the Minister of Local Government and the Auditor General to come and audit Mbarara City Council. They need to explain how they misused taxpayers’ money. We have also resolved to drag Mbarara City Council to court in order to give us our money,” he added.

Godfrey Tumusiime, the Mbarara City South Division Speaker said that the leaders of Mbarara City Council have caused poor service delivery to most areas of the City Divisions. He said that Mbarara City Division is the most revenue collection source for Mbarara City but the division is collapsing due to lack of funds.

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