An ongoing council session in Gulu city hall. Photo by Proscovia Achomo

By Proscovia Achomo

Gulu

Gulu city council has tabled a draft budget of 33bn shillings for the financial year 2024/2025. The draft budget was presented on Friday from Gulu City Health boardroom by Joyce Alima, the speaker for Gulu City Council during a full council meeting.

Out of the total 33,458,758,000 shillings, Administration takes the biggest portion of 22,075,331,000 shillings followed by Education with 3,315,231,000 shillings, Roads and Engineering with 1,960,212,000 shillings and Health with 1,575,925,000 shillings.

Other departments including Finance will get 1,044,972,000 shillings, Natural Resources with 825,287,000 shillings, Statutory Bodies with 725,504,000 shillings and Trade, Industry and Local Development will get 624,376,000 shillings.

Meanwhile Planning, Production and Marketing and Internal Audit will get the least budget allocation of 374,686,000 shillings, 279,291,000 shillings and 183,800,000 shillings respectively. The budget approved for the running of this financial year 2023/2024 was 55,787,509,000 billion shillings, and this shows that there is a great decline in the next year’s financial budget.

Reflecting on the decline from the current fiscal year 2023/2024, Caroline Rose Adong, the secretary finance and production who doubles as a councillor representing people with disabilities in Gulu City disclosed that the decrease is primarily attributed to the conclusion of USMID-AF program, though negotiations with the World Bank are underway to potentially secure more funding under USMID initiative. Furthermore, she says there has been a significant reduction in conditional development grants, in sectors such as Education and Health.

While reading the draft budget, Caroline said’’ this reduction came about because in the past, property rate was put together with locally raised revenue though they received a communication that property rate should not be treated as local revenue, and this time it is separated that’s why there is a reduction in locally raised revenue.’’

Adong said the council projects to raise 7,051,668,890 billion shillings constituting (29%) for locally raised revenue which is lower compared to the current financial year where they had budgeted for 9.7 billion shillings. She said locally raised revenue encompasses income generated within the local jurisdiction, taxes, fees, licenses and other revenue sources collected by the city town agents. ‘’This revenue plays a pivotal role in funding local services and infrastructural projects’’ she said.

Caroline further said, the central government transfer for Gulu City is projected to be 26,407,089,000 billion shillings which represents (79%) of the total revenue estimate for financial year 2024/2025.

Innocent Ahimbisibwe, Gulu city Town Clerk said the budget was tabled late, however he pleads that when the time comes, the executives scrutinize, understand and pass the budget that will be easy to implement but able to transform the lives of the people of Gulu City.

Kamba Amir, Deputy Resident City Commissioner for Bardege Layibi Divison, Gulu City in his speech said that this budget is the mandate of the people of Gulu City. ‘’I call upon the council to deliberate so that when time comes for the sake of serving the community, your efforts bring an impact in the lives of our people and our country.’’

Gulu City expects to receive off- budget support from United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDCF) Grant worth 1,364,149,576 billion shillings.