VACANT POSITIONS FORCE ARUA DISTRICT TO RETURN SHS.4BN

Kabugo Deo, Arua district Chief Administrative Officer holding a copy of the approved district budget during the handover ceremony recently.

By Dramadri Federick

Arua city

Arua District Local Government has returned approximately four billion shillings to the Consolidated Fund after failing to spend the money allocated for the 2025/2026 financial year.

The district budget performance report shows that wage, pension and gratuity categories accounted for a significant portion of the unspent funds.

The Chief Administrative Officer, Deo Kabugo, says the district failed to recruit several critical staff, including four heads of departments, after failing to attract suitable candidates.

He says several teachers and health workers also remain unrecruited in schools and health facilities, creating gaps in service delivery.

“we have four vacancies including District Natural Resources Officer, District Engineer, District Health Officer and the District Planner as of now these positions are been held by officers on acting basis, and whenever some of these positions are not filled you don’t score high marks as a local government during assessment and this affects next grant disbursement from the central government to the district.”

Kabugo stressed that failure to absorb the funds is also affecting the district’s new budget call circular and could negatively influence its performance assessment by the central government.

Part of the unspent funds was earmarked for projects under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development USMID programme and the Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers Programme UgIFT.

Arua District Chairman Cosmas Ayikobua says while accountability for public funds is important, prolonged reliance on acting personnel has created challenges in supervision and raised concerns over corruption and poor workmanship.

“We had all these officers but they retired and the Chief Administrative Officer failed to immediately declare the positions vacant to the district service commission and that’s why our wage bill has kept on dropping and moneys were swept back. It is our internal weakness”. Ayikobua stated

Under the Public Finance Management Act, 2015, Ministries, Departments and Agencies are required to return unspent public funds to the Consolidated Fund before the beginning of a new financial year.

However, district officials say delays in recruitment and implementation of planned activities continue to leave resources unused, with consequences for public service delivery.

Written by newsroom-radiopacis