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Kitgum Worst Performing Municipalities in Solid Waste Management-AG Report

According to the audit report of the Auditor General for the Financial Year 2023/24, Kitgum Municipality scored only 30 percent in solid waste management in the implementation of the Uganda Municipal Support to Infrastructural Development Additional Financing (USMID-AF).
21 Jan 2025 19:14
Garbage collected at Gulu Main Market in Gulu City.
Kitgum Municipality has been ranked among the worst-performing administrative units in the country in the collection and disposal of solid waste in the last three years.

According to the audit report of the Auditor General for the Financial Year 2023/24, Kitgum Municipality scored only 30 percent in solid waste management in the implementation of the Uganda Municipal Support to Infrastructural Development Additional Financing (USMID-AF).

Kitgum is among the selected Municipalities and cities benefitting from funding for the implementation of the USMID-AF programme that not only focuses on infrastructural development but improved collection of urban liquid and solid waste. 

Other cities are Fort Portal and Soroti which were ranked as best performing cities having collected and disposed of 86 percent of the garbage collected in their respective areas followed by Kamuli Municipality which scored 79 percent.

Other worst-performing administrative units included Lira City and Tororo Municipality which scored 10 and 28 percent respectively.

The report indicated that quantities of solid waste generated and disposed of by the participating cities remain very low compared to the volumes generated. For instance, in the three years between 2021/22 to 2023/24, only 37 percent of the total 4,03,740 tons of solid waste generated were disposed of.

Specifically, the Cities collected and disposed of 1.1 million tonnes (34.4 percent) of the planned 3.2 million tonnes of waste generated, while the Municipalities collected and disposed of only 399,897 tonnes (50 percent) of the generated 812,462 tonnes of solid waste.

Edward Akol, the Auditor General in his audit report noted that the challenges with solid waste management arose since the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development (MoLHUD) had not developed a national solid waste management policy. 

He said the Ministry had also not implemented plans for resilient infrastructure and waste recycling which hampers solid waste Management coordinating efforts in the Cities and Municipalities. 

“I advised the Accounting Officer of MoLHUD to expedite the development of the policy to ensure a comprehensive approach to solid waste management in the Cities and Municipalities to improve and secure environmental resilience and public health,” he recommended.

Kitgum Municipality Mayor Richard Okwera Ojara didn’t comment on the matter citing that he hadn’t read the Auditor general’s report yet.

Alexis Abonga, the Acting Kitgum Municipal Engineer however acknowledged the challenges they faced in disposing of garbage in the last financial year and attributed it to lack of equipment.

Abonga noted that while the Municipal council has a landfill measuring about six acres in Piny Munu in Labongo Akwang Sub-county, access to the area had been nearly impossible for the past year.

“We had challenges in solid waste management last year relating to challenges of dumping site. At some point in time, our landfill was not accessible, and we needed some equipment to go and reorganize it,” he told URN in an interview Tuesday.

According to Abonga, the Municipal council leadership on Tuesday had a lengthy engagement on resolving the garbage crisis effective this February.

USMID-AF was rolled out in the financial year 2018/19 after the government secured an additional five-year financing facility of USD 360 million from the International Development Association (IDA/World Bank). A total of 22 municipalities and cities are participating in the project.

However, in the recent audit report, conducted on 91 infrastructure projects with a total cost of 711.6 billion shillings consisting of roads and building projects, the auditor general found glaring challenges in the projects' implementation.

For instance, there was an overpayment of 1.65 billion shillings on USMID-funded projects and 95.96 million shillings on non-USMID-funded projects following measurements undertaken on some of the executed works that showed inconsistencies in some quantities certified.

The report also established that the Municipalities of Lugazi and Busia made payments above certified amounts totalling 134.2 million shillings on the USMID-funded projects while Fort Portal City made a payment above the certified amount totalling 7.5 million shillings on one of its non-USMID funded projects.

Concern was also raised by the auditor general on seven USMID-funded projects implemented in the Municipalities/Cities of Hoima, Kasese, Lira, Kitgum and Lugazi, where payments totalling 2.36 billion shillings were made without necessary supporting documents.

“This lack of documentation increases the risk of overpayments and payments for unexecuted activities,” the Auditor General highlighted in the report.

In his recommendation, Akol tasked the respective accounting officers to ensure that the overpayments and payments made above the certified amounts were recovered. He also tasked the accounting officers to investigate the basis on which payments without supporting documents were made and, if found unsatisfactory, ensure the necessary recoveries were made.

A total of 36 USMID-funded projects have been implemented since the financial year 2021/22 and 44 non-USMID projects consisting of two non-USMID projects from each local government-financed from Uganda Road Fund (URF), School Facilities Grants (SFG), Discretionary Development Equalisation Grant (DDEG) were implemented in the FY 2023/24.