The Speaker, Anita Among has urged local leaders from Bukedea District to towards improving service delivery.

“Whether elected or appointed, irrespective of political affiliations, you have a common and shared goal of ensuring quality service delivery in the District of Bukedea. This should always be our preoccupation,” she said.

The Speaker made these remarks at a training organized for Bukedea District Local Government officials at Hotel Africana on Tuesday, 24 January 2023.

The training aims at equipping leaders with skills in deliberating on issues in district council.

Speaker Among said that Parliament is committed to delivering training for the local governments.

“The goal is to empower you to maintain public support, retain power and enhance quality of services in Bukedea District,” Among said.

She added that, ’while each of you may be the vision bearers in your respective jurisdictions based on the promises that you made to the electorate, the effectiveness of your leadership is dependent on your knowledge and skills’.

Among appealed to the local leaders to put citizens at the forefront of all the decisions taken saying many district leaders forget their role of offering services to people.

“You ought always to be conscious to voice and champion the needs of the voiceless and vulnerable within Bukedea. Parliament is aware that while you possess this wide constitutional mandate, you are constrained by inadequate resource envelope,” she added.

According to Swizen Singa Mugyema, a commissioner at the Ministry of Local Government, the inability of local leaders to effectively deliberate on issues at local government has resulted in poor service delivery across the country.

“This is the time to redirect and focus on improved service delivery and righten all that was not good,”  Mugyema said.

Concy Anyait, a Bukedea District councillor said many of the district councillors lack the capacity to effectively deliberate on issues brought before the council, something which has been affecting the quality-of-service delivery in the district.

Kachumbala County Member of Parliament, Hon. Patrick Isiagi Opolot said the training will elevate the quality of leadership besides improving working relationships between politicians and technical staff in the district.

“This is a step in the right direction and the beneficiary of this shall be the local people as they are the primary focus of all the government plan, budget, and implement all programmes,” he said.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.