The Minister for Presidency, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda has urged the people of Nebbi District to embrace government poverty alleviation programs such as Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga in order to fight poverty.
“I also appeal to you to join the government’s fight against corruption. When we minimise wastage and leakages, we will save money for service delivery in the country. Therefore, Join me in this big fight against wastage of public resources,” she said.
The Minister made the remarks yesterday while presiding over the official opening of the newly constructed Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Offices for Nebbi District.
Hon. Babalanda informed the audience that she was in Nebbi not only to open an office building but to largely remind the leaders of the district of their roles in maintaining stability of the area and their contribution towards transforming the lives of Ugandans with the focus on poverty alleviation.
“I am glad that Nebbi is moving forward on all fronts. How Nebbi looked in 1986 is very different from how it is appearing today. This is a sign of total transformation. I commend the leadership of the district for not involving yourselves in petty and selfish fights. What has failed some districts to develop is the lack of teamwork and the unending in-fighting in the local governments,” she explained.
“I therefore want to appreciate my brother Robert – the Senior RDC and my son Hassan the deputy RDC for being exemplary and focused and for fighting hard to bring the leaders and people of Nebbi together. I have never received any complaints against any of you from the people and the leaders.”
The Minister further advised that local leaders should know that RDCs are government representatives who are mandated to monitor and supervise government programs and they should not be seen as enemies while doing their work.
“The discipline of RDCs has generally
improved countrywide because they have received many trainings in their line of duty. Therefore, I am happy that today I am officially opening the people’s office. The RDC merely manages this office on your behalf,” she said.
“We have 146 districts in the entire country. We still have much work to do to cover all the districts with new offices. It’s a continuing activity. But I am happy that it is now on record that during my tenure as minister for the presidency, the people of Nebbi acquired a new office block after waiting for so many years.”
Hon. Babalanda also commended H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda for permitting them to construct this office, the parliament of Uganda for approving their budget and the Secretary Office of the President for the excellent planning.
“In a special way I thank the chairperson Parliamentary Committee on Presidential Affairs my sister Jessica Ababiku and
your committee for not frustrating our budget effort for the construction of the RDC offices,” Hon. Babalanda said.
The Head of the RDC Secretariat, Maj. Martha Asiimwe thanked the Nebbi District Local Government for allocating land to the Office of the President for the construction of an Office for the area RDC.
“Hon. Minister, as your Ministry we intend to construct more offices as long as the district local government provides us with land,” Maj. Asiimwe said.
Maj Asiimwe also informed the Minister that they are going to construct the Mityana RDC’s office next, revealing that the deal is already done with the contractor in place.
“Hon. Minister, in 2011 your office requested the District Local Governments to allocate land for the construction of office blocks for Resident District Commissioners and so far 48 districts have allocated pieces of land. However, like I have alluded already due to monetary constraints, the Office has not been in position to develop the allocated land hence the risk of being encroached on,” she stressed.
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