Jinja withholds allowances of councilors to buy road equipment

Authorities in Jinja City have been withholding councillors' sitting allowances in order to purchase road equipment worth Shs1.5billion, a district leader told Monitor.

The equipment includes a grader and roller for mainly works in Jinja North Division, where roads are either in bad state or impassable.

Jinja Town Clerk Edward Lwanga said he deliberately denied the councillors their sitting allowances to purchase the road equipment using local revenue collections in the city, not the government.

“I have a number of times denied councillors their allowances, purposely to purchase the equipment using money from local revenue collection,” he told Monitor.

Following the purchase, authorities have abandoned hiring contractors and reduced on the dependence on government road equipment which is deemed costly.

 “We started saving slowly to show the people how the money we collect from them is being spent,” Lwanga explained on Thursday.

He said he has been hearing unconfirmed reports suggesting that he will be transferred, but as he waits for such a directive, people will talk about the purchase of the road equipment positively.

In the recently read national budget for the Financial Year 2024/2025, money was allocated for 10 yet to be disclosed roads in Jinja City.

Jinja Speaker Bernard Mbayo said Lwanga had initially asked him to support his dreams, especially in capital projects, after he (Lwanga) was posted to the city.

Mbayo said through his guidance to the councilors, they bought the idea and approved the budget for the purchase of the road equipment as a capital project from revenue collected locally through taxes.

He, however, warned the engineering department against moving any of the equipment or hiring it out for private work, decrying a time when Jinja City's road equipment was reportedly found in Njeru Municipality doing private work- and has since disappeared to-date.

He said: “You are aware and can remember that we lost our grader in Njeru to private work and are not going to allow this new equipment to leave the city for private work. We shall arrest anybody abusing and using the equipment on site.”

Jinja City Mayor Peter Kasolo Okocha noted that Mbayo and Lwanga presented the idea (tto aquire new road equipment) to the council and it was approved without any problem.

Kasolo highlighted that in the past budgets, they city was approving sitting allowances for the council members and at the end of the financial year, nothing was presented to the people from the money collected as revenue collection.

“We have a big plan for this city, including having a full road equipment unit in the near future to eliminate road contractors given work for a short period, but with limited equipment, hindering development targets,” Kasolo added.

Jinja North Division Mayor Ayub Wabika, urged the engineering department to design a works timetable, especially for his area, which he said has many impassable roads.

Meanwhile, Jinja Resident City Commissioner Darius encouraged area authorities to work on the Dunlop-Walukuba-Masese Road that leads to several factories which contribute to local revenue.