By; Francis Lubega

09th July 2020

Officials from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development have revealed that they are yet to receive the 2.4 billion Shillings allocated by Parliament to relocate street children in Kampala.

The funds were requested in May 2020 through a supplementary budget. In her statement to Parliament then, the Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi said that the money was to be used to look after street children during the Covid-19 pandemic and that it would be spent in two months to resettle and feed the children in over 100 gazetted homes.

While appearing before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today, James Ebitu the Ministry’s Acting Permanent Secretary, said they had not received any funds that were allocated by Parliament. Ebitu and others had appeared to respond to audit queries raised in the June 2019 Auditor General’s report.

His revelation followed a question from Amudat Woman MP Rosemary Nauwat and Bunyole West MP James Waluswaka who asked about the increase in the number of street children despite approval of a supplementary budget by parliament.

Officials from the Ministry of Gender told Parliament that the funds are expected to finance priority interventions targeting 1,500 street children.

The matter of hustling to get 25,000/= government allotted each older person who has clocked 80 years    through the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) was also tabled as most people spend it on transport but Ebitu promised to his technical team to study it to improve on its accessibility.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development Frank Mugabi acknowledged the committee’s concern but explains that they have now extended the provision centres to parish levels and also are in talks with service providers (banks) to ensure they extend their mini centres to places that can reasonably be accessed by the older people.


Thursday 9th July 2020 05:34:34 PM