MBARARA– Mbarara Municipal councilors are furious about the decision by the Ministry of Education to block the construction of a seed school in the municipality.
According to the council resolution, councilors had agreed to construct a seed school in Rwemigina cell Kakiika division in Mbarara municipality, the decision that was made after the ministry granted them funds to do so.
The seed school was meant to cost a whopping sum of Shs253, 590,000. According to speaker Bonny Tashobya Karusya, the budget and advanced procurement processes were all done in time.
In the minute that was passed in the council of June, “Council resolved that a seed school be built in Kakiika division” the minute reads.
Tashobya in an interview with PML Daily on Monday, he opined that they had already Informed the people of Kakika division where the seed school was going to be constructed.
“Because of what they had told us, they had given us a go ahead, we had started the procurement process but we were shocked when we received a communication from the Ministry stopping the project,” said Tashobya
Tashobya noted that in the last council meeting, he received a letter from the ministry indicating that the financial grant for the construction of seed schools in all the municipalities had been cancelled. However, he said the letter was not explicitly revealing the reasons why the financial grant has been canceled.
“There was an error in the ministry because they are the people who sent us this grant; for us we prepared and we had chosen Kakiika to be the beneficiary but as you saw we also got another document from the ministry of education telling us that it should be the district to handle not municipalities” he explained
Tashobya added that the decision hampers development and narrows mistrust among the people who voted them in their respective areas for service delivery.
“This has really put people’s moods differently in a negative way because we earlier talked to our people and they are expecting a school that’s all,” said Tashobya
Imam Shaffi Kagiko, area councilor Katete ward Nyamitanga division, blamed the project blockage on having incompetent executive top leadership in the municipality.
He says the municipal council is a government level which should not be interfered when implementing its resolutions.
“Council is a corporate body that can sue or be sued; it is a planning unit and an autonomous body which should not be interfered with by other forces to do what we are supposed to do” said Kagiko
Tashobya further revealed that they instructed the executive committee led by Mayor Robert Kakyebezi to write to the ministry to reconsider them
