Those who were expecting to be employed by government will have to wait much longer as there will be no money for additional recruitment of staff within public service in the financial year 2019/20, senior official of the Ministry of Public Service has said.
Speaking at a Local Government Budget Consultative meeting in Jinja last week, Simon Bwire, Principal Human Resource Officer at Ministry of public service said that in light of the unavailable resources that “Recruitment will be based on replacement of positions that have become vacant within the running financial year 2017/18”.
wire said that requests for recruitment should be made for positions that exist in the approved structure of the entity. He told the accounting officers present to attach a clear letter when submitting requests for recruitment.
“The deadline for submitting recruitment plans for FY2019/20 is 30th September 2018,” he said. He also said that positions which missed out on salary enhancement in the first phase of financial year 2018/19 will receive enhancement in the second phase.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED), Commissioner John Wanjala said that this year’s Local Government Budget Consultative meetings (LGBC) serve to kick start the budget preparation process for financial year 2019/20.
The Commissioner said that the meetings seek to present and discuss the proposed budget strategy for financial year 2019/20, incorporate the proposals of the leaders at local government level and generate consensus on government proposals for financial year 2019/20.
“The FY2019/20 Budget Strategy will focus on harnessing key growth sectors, enhancing private sector growth and development, boosting human capital development, strengthening public sector management and developing a financing mechanism,” he said.
Presenting a position paper on behalf of the Civil society, Eli Wanyama of Vision Care Organisation highlighted the poor state of health, education and sanitation infrastructure, pupil and teacher absenteeism especially in the hard to reach district of Namayingo in Sigulu Islands, where teachers and pupils alike engage in fishing instead of school. He also raised the issue of poor garbage management in the municipalities of Busia and Jinja.
Meanwhile, at the LGBC meetings in Masaka district, Godfrey Ssebugoobwa, the Acting director, financial services at the ministry warned district workers and leaders to deliver services as planned. Ssebugwao was bitter, saying that in the financial year 2017/18 Shs35.4 billion from local gov’ts accounts was sent to the consolidated fund after officials failed to spend it.
As a recommendation, he said that Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi, has been instructed to institute disciplinary action on the accounting officers who fail to utilize the funds or fail to provide convincing evidence as to why the funds were returned. He urged local governments to improve their performance in order to positively impact service delivery.
Another LGBC meeting was held at Acholi Inn in Gulu, where Emma Ogwang, an Economist in the ministry attached to the Budget Office, said the Program Based Budgeting (PBB) reforms by the ministry is to link performance to results. The Gulu LGBC meeting was attended by different district local government officials, other government agencies, media and civil society members.