By TesoVibez Reporter

The Chief Administrative Officer Dokolo District Isa Mbooge has written to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Local government in response to the accusations made by the district local council five chairperson Dokolo James Otoo Apili.

Otto authored a letter dated 31st March, 2022 to the Ministry of Local Government requesting the immediate transfer of Isa Mbooge, the Chief Administrative Officer Dokolo district accusing him of being incompetent and sabotaging the development of the district.

According to the Letter, Otto outlined that the accounting officer (Mbooge) failed to appear before the committee of the parliament of the national economy who had come to the district to assess the Agricultural Cluster Development project in the district.

The letter points out that Mbooge, being the accounting officer failed to provide draft budget estimates for FY 2022/2023 as required by law, and utilized the 23 million for the third quarter of FY 2022/2023 under the Uganda Road Fund. The district also failed to utilize the court fund of 48million for FY 2021/2022.

The letter also alleged that money worth 300million for the construction of staff quarters in the two health centers of Aweki and Adok is likely to be returned.

Otto further noted that the accounting officer also has a case being followed by the statehouse anti-corruption unit for payment of ghost workers (Teachers).

In his response to the letter addressed to the ministry of local government, the CAO Dokolo acknowledged the concerns expressed by the LC5 chairman adding that in the principle of natural justice it’s fair to respond to the above baseless allegations.

Mbooge said that the parliamentary Committee on the national economy had scheduled to be in Dokolo on Tuesday 15th March, at l0:am to interact with various stakeholders. However, at the same time, the Ministry of Education had scheduled the official commissioning of Bata Seed School on that very day . This according to him was earmarked earlier.

“We had to adjust it to be at 2:00 pm to be able to accommodate the Parliamentary Committee in the morning hours. But due to unavoidable circumstances, members of the Parliamentary Committee on national arrived at 3:00 pm when I had proceeded to Bata Seed, by the time I arrived at the District, the committee had ruled that the entire team of Dokolo District should follow them to Kumi on Wednesday 16th March 2022 at 8:00 am and interact with the committee. We complied and went to Kumi District Headquarters and interacted with the committee” he said.

The accusation of having failed to provide draft budget estimates for FY 2022/2023 as required by law, the accounting officer said it’s true the district couldn't lay the budget by 31st March 2022 due to the fact that the Draft Budget window could not open on the Program-Budgeting System (PBS) which the annual estimates are aligned and extracted from.

“It had not been uploaded due to system challenges from the Ministry of Finance and there was no way we could go ahead to lay A non-authentic budget estimate for the sake of beating deadlines without putting into consideration authentic IPF from the Ministry of Finance Planning &Economic Development,” he said.

Failure to utilize the 23 million for third quarter FY 2022/2023 under Uganda Road Fund, Mbooge said utilization of road funds budget was confused by the District chairperson himself who gave a directive to the District Engineer in the committee meeting of works and Technical services that he shouldn’t do any road works beyond 1,700,000 (one million seven hundred thousand shillings) per kilometer of the road.

“On realizing this confusion I had to communicate to the District Engineer directing him to implement the road works as per the approved budget and work plan, disregarding the District chairperson's directive,” he said.

The district also failed to utilize the court fund of 48million for FY 2021/2022. “It’s true the Ugx: 48,000,000 for payments of court cases were budgeted under local revenue. So far out of the realized local revenue, we have paid M/s Kania advocates shillings 15,000,000(Fifteen Million shillings) subsequent payments to be effected as local revenue is realized” the CAO noted.

Payment of work which is not done for FY 2022/2027 for Adagmon and Awelo Health Center iii, the accounting officer denied saying he has never effected payment to that effect.

 “I have never effected any payment for work not done, this work for the upgrade of these health centers were certified and payment effected and the works were completed and already in use” he replied.

“I have never at any one time paid a ghost worker or staff in Dokolo District. What is being referred to as ghost workers are actually our established staff whose health was incapacitated due to ill health and some ended up passing on without bringing to our attention, especially during the Covid 19 pandemic” he said.

He noted that the District immediately realized the passing of the staff and they were deactivated from the payroll.
“This case was handled and concluded by the Anti-Corruption Unit of State House,” he said.

Issa Mbooge was posted to Dokolo District on the 1st July, 2019.

The new structure of Awelo Health center