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Nakasongola introduces Bill to check scrap dealers
Business. A pickup loaded with scrap metal in Kamuli District in 2014. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Relevance. Ms Betty Namukwaya, the Nakasongola District secretary for finance and administration, says the Bill will not only save private and public property, but will be a potential source of revenue for the district.
Councillors in Nakasongola District are planning to push through a by-law to check the increasing cases of vandalism of government installations in the area.
The Metallic Scrap Venture Bill, 2019, which is fronted by Mr Charles Bogere, a councillor representing Nakasongola Town Council, seeks to curb the ongoing vandalism of school windows, doors, fence poles, chain links and guard rails.
The thieves also steal sauce pans, cooking stoves, metallic charcoal stoves, wheelbarrows, hoes and copper wires from masts.
These items are sold to private electrical suppliers mainly in Kampala.
“The Bill is premised on the fact that we continue to receive a lot of complaints from residents regarding loss of property in the name of scrap where the dealers take away anything metallic without authorisation from owners. We have schools, health centres and valley dams that have been vandalised yet the players in the industry do not follow the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act,” Mr Bogere said during an interview on Wednesday.
He said the Bill will help create a special ordinance that will regulate the scrap business and make it unlawful for one to vend materials whose origin is not known.
“As a district, we have registered loss of property to suspected scrap dealers including the chain link and metallic poles at Nakasongola Health Centre IV that had been used to fence off the facility, loss of metallic windows at St Mary’s Primary School, Nakasongola, loss of metallic pipes at Sungira Valley Dam and the Kansirye cattle market weighing scale was recently vandalised,” he said
Mr Sam Kigula, the Nakasongola District chairperson, said: “We should rein in and save the district property from this unchecked business that has not only led to loss of property, but has recruited young boys who dodge school and engage in the search for anything metallic for sale. We need to have a law to restrict...,” he said .
Ms Betty Namukwaya, the Nakasongola District secretary for finance and administration, said the proposed regulation will not only save private and public property, but will be a potential source of revenue for the district.
“Dealers earn from the scrap, but their respective scrap business is not taxed, we are going to look into that as well,” she said
