ZOMBO: Councillors spark fury over abrupt reshuffle of committees

Zombo, (UG):- A sizeable number of Zombo District councillors have expressed utmost disgruntlement after the council sitting of March 11, 2024, left majority of them reshuffled in a move to proficiently articulate emerging issues and oversight roles in the district committees.

The committee reshuffle was involved based on the standard rules of procedures for the local government council RULE 91 that provide for the constitution, reinstitution or re-organisation of standing committees upon expiry of the two and half years tenure.

According to the councillors, the castigated ‘modus operandi’ to aid reorganisations of the committees without compromise and absolute integrity involved individual members solely picking a single piece of paper among the many on which the about four committees are labelled.

This according to them is opposed to the previous systems where one chooses a committee of interest and the later system was adopted as a result of the bench-making tour the District Councilors had in  Luwero district where they had comparative studies on the local government administrative systems.

Mr Dennis Ocuna, District Councillor for Warr sub county speaking to DailyExpress revealed how the system used to establish the current committees may infringe on the performance of the committees for the remaining political tenure.

“Now here we are choosing committees blindly without knowing because they folded papers written on the committees where you will belong some members are going to committees they have no passion imagine going to the committee of works and transport where there is a lot of technicality,” Mr Ocuna said in an exclusive interview with DailyExpress.

A simple majority of the Councilors during the council sitting reached a consensus on reshufflement in the committees in order to build capacity by giving an opportunity to the different councillors to chair and gain membership in the different committees over the 5 years tenure in the political office and eliminate monopoly and selfish interests in a particular committee.

The tense articulations castigating and seeking guidance on the sense of democracy in the system of reorganisation of the committees prompted Mr. Hassan Ringtho, the District Speaker to suspend Mr Saddiki Onencan of Paidha Town Council from the sitting to restore tranquillity during the sitting and perhaps execute prerogative to steer the council.

When contacted by DailyExpress later on, Mr Onencan noted that there was no sense and practice of democracy in the picking of pieces of paper as opposed to other better available means of constituting the committees.

“We want to make choices you are talking about democracy out of which you are rolling a paper somewhere then you want me to pick and what I pick is where am going that is the point I was seeking clarification on,” Onencan iterated.

The Councilors were further tasked to study and master the standard Rules of procedures and the local government acts in order to improve the quality of debate and deliberations during the council sittings.

Zombo District Local Government has more than 30 district Councilors representing town councils, sub-counties and other special interest groups of the elderly, youth, PWDs and workers representatives.