tororo DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT council SCORECARD assessment FY 2018/19 tororo DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT council SCORECARD assessment FY 2018/19 L-R: Ms. Rose Gamwera, Secretary General ULGA; Mr. Ben Kumumanya, PS. MoLG and Dr. Arthur Bainomugisha, Executive Director ACODE in a group photo with award winners at the launch of the 8th Local Government Councils Scorecard Report FY 2018/19 at Hotel Africana in Kampala on 10th March 2020 1.0 Introduction the northwest. The district was originally created from part of the Greater Maluku, to This brief was developed from the form Bukedi District that changed to Tororo scorecard report titled, “The Local in 1980. The district has since then altered Government Councils Scorecard in size giving birth to several districts. FY2018/19. The Next Big Steps: At the time of assessment, the current Consolidating Gains of Decentralisation district comprised 19 sub counties and and Repositioning the Local Government 1 municipality. Tororo has had a steadily Sector in Uganda.” The brief provides key increasing population of about 2.7% per highlights of the performance of elected annum. In 2012, the mid-year population leaders and Council of Tororo District was estimated at 487,900 (UBOS, 2012). Local Government during FY 2018/19. Tororo District is multi-ethnic with tribes 1.1 Brief about Tororo District including the Jopadhola, Itesots, Bagishu, Samia, as well as the Kenyan Nandi. Located in the Eastern part of the country, Tororo District is bordered by Mbale 1.2 The Local Government Councils District to the north, Manafwa District to Scorecard Initiative (LGCSCI) the northeast, Kenya to the east, Busia The main building blocks in LGCSCI are District to the south, Bugiri District to the principles and core responsibilities of the southwest, and Butaleja District to Local Governments as set out in Chapter Eugene Gerald Ssemakula • Nagginda1 Judith • Stephen Jean Opong tororo DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT council SCORECARD assessment FY 2018/19 11 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, the Local Governments Act (CAP 243) under Section 10 (c), 2.0 Results of the Assessment (d) and (e). The scorecard comprises This section highlights the performance of of five parameters based on the core Council, Chairperson, Speaker of Council and responsibilities of the local government Councillors of Tororo District Local Government Councils, District Chairpersons, during the FY 2018/19. Speakers and Individual Councillors. 2.1 District Council These are classified into five categories: Financial management Tororo District council was assessed on and oversight; Political functions legislative role, accountability, planning and and representation; Legislation and budgeting and monitoring service delivery. In related functions; Development total the district scored 38 out of 100 points, planning and constituency servicing indicating a slight improvement by 4 points in and Monitoring service delivery. The the previous assessment. This performance parameters are broken down into ranked them 34th out of the 35 assessed quantitative and qualitative indicators. districts. The district scored way below average Separate scorecards are produced in each of the parameters compared to other for the District Chairperson, Speaker districts at both national and regional levels as of Council, individual Councillors, and indicated in Figure 1. Council as a whole. Figure 1: Performance of Tororo District The major rationale of the LGCSCI is Council on Key Parameters Relative to induce elected political leaders and to National and Regional Average representative organs to deliver on Performances their electoral promises, improve public service delivery, ensure accountability and promote good governance through periodic assessments. 1.3 Methodology The 2018/19 LGCSCI assessment used face-to-face structured interviews, civic engagement meetings, documents’ review, key informant interviews, field visits and Source: Local Government Councils Scorecard Assessment FY 2018/19 photography to collect the relevant data. The assessment was conducted 2.2 District Chairperson between November and December Ever since the passing on of the elected 2019. A total of 42 elected leaders (41 District Chairperson Apollo Jaramogi in District Councillors, and Speaker) and 2016, the district has not had a substantive Council were assessed. The acting chairperson. The Vice Chairperson as by Chairperson, Hon. Stella Echiria law, took the mantle as acting chairperson to Imukutet was assessed in her capacity undertake the chairperson’s roles. However, as a councillor representing Osukuru the conflict within council never allowed her Sub County. to fully occupy the office, with members of her 2 tororo DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT council SCORECARD assessment FY 2018/19 executive committee resigning denying her 2.4 District Councillors quorum (these have since rescinded their The overall performance of the district resignation but have not been reinstated). councillors was below the national Attempts by the Electoral Commission to and regional average with only six (6) hold elections for a substantive district councillors scoring above 50 points and chairperson were equally frustrated due the majority scoring below 20 points. to the conflict between political leaders. It The lowest scores were obtained in should be noted that there were two camps monitoring service delivery where on of leaders that is those pushing for a new average councillors scored 7 out of 45 district (these boycotted the election) and points. This performance was comparably those that were not in support of a split poor both at national and regional level of Tororo District. As a result, the district as indicated in Figure 3. Notwithstanding, has not had an executive committee for specific councillors including Hon. Jimmy the last 4 years hence operates without Alia Apumeri of Kwapa, Hon. Betty Andera the full force of executive leadership. This Chieria of Lyolwa and Magola and Hon. was partly one of the reasons as to why Noah Okumu performed above average the acting chairperson was assessed as with 68, 65 and 63 points respectively. a councillor. Figure 3: Performance of Tororo 2.3 District Speaker of Council District Councillors on Key Parameters During the FY 2018/19 the Speaker of Relative to National and Regional Council was Hon. John Okea who was Average Performances representing PWDs. He subscribes to the ruling NRM party. At the time of the assessment, he was serving a second term in office. Speaker Okea scored 74 out of 100 points, registering an improvement from 43 points obtained in the previous assessment. His performance was above average across all the assessed parameters as indicated in Figure 2. Figure 2: Speaker of Council’s Performance on Key Parameters Source: Local Government Councils Scorecard Assessment FY 2018/19 Relative to National and Regional 3.0 Factors Affecting Average Performances Performance A number of factors can be attributed to this poor performance in the last assessment, notably: • Conflict between the political leaders: The political stand-off between councillors from Tororo County and those from West Budama has affected the district for the past 4 years. Source: Local Government Councils Scorecard Assessment FY 2018/19 3 tororo DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT council SCORECARD assessment FY 2018/19 • Non-attendance of Council: This have neither monitored nor made any was originally done as a ploy to deny advocacy for improvement of service council quorum with all councillors delivery. Key examples include; of Tororo county boycotting council • Roads: Roads that had been in poor sittings. Indeed, no single council was shape stayed long without being held in the FY 2017/18. However, after attended to. the reconciliation efforts by various actors including H.E the president, a • Education: A number of primary few councillors from Tororo County schools are terribly under staffed, for had a change of heart. However, up instance Pa Noah Primary school in to 10 councillors still do not attend Sop Sop Sub County west Budama council thus denying their electorate County has over 1100 pupils, with 6 representation. Teachers including the Headmistress. One of the teachers posted in • Absence of a District Executive this school comes from Kidera Pa Committee: The absence of a district Nyangasi, in Rubongi Sub County, and executive committee has affected the has to ride a bicycle for up to 19kms functioning of the local government on to access his duty station. This is key functions that DEC is mandated to even made worse by the fact that the undertake. The district for example has teacher is an elderly person. Several no District Service Commission since other schools are in equal state and there is no one to appoint it. This has equally deserving attention. an effect on service delivery where recruitment of key staff for schools, • Health: In Mukujju Health centre IV in health centres and administration Tororo County, the toilets are near full, cannot be done. all the ambulances were long written off, as such in case of transferring of • Incapacitating chairperson’s office: patients to Tororo main Hospital or The office of the chairperson has any referral, it is on the mercy of good been made ineffective. The acting Samaritans. chair cannot perform her roles like monitoring service delivery in the entire • Agriculture: In Rubongi Sub County, district. It is observable that the acting the farmers received banana cuttings chairperson cannot set foot in West