Govt to recruit 6,172 health workers - Mbabazi

Govt to recruit 6,172 health workers - Mbabazi

Govt to recruit 6,172 health workers - MbabaziPublish Date: Sep 26, 2012

Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi

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By Joyce Namutebi and Henry Sekanjako

Twenty three ministries and government bodies are to undergo budget cuts as the MPs and the Executive agreed to give the health ministry additional sh49.54b.

The agreement brought to an end a week-long protracted debate on the issue.

Of this, sh6.5b  will cater for recruitment of 6,172 health centre personnel, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi said on Tuesday.

He told MPs that on instructions of Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga on Thursday, the Executive and the budget committee met and agreed on the additional financing for the health sector. They, he added, had since held several consultations before harmonising their positions.

There was heated exchange between the MPs and the Government as they tried to reach a mutually agreeable position.

Mbabazi assured them that the Government would provide additional sh49.54b for recruitment and remuneration of health workers for health centres.

“We all agreed on the urgent need to improve the health care in the country. Therefore, we shall now address the human resource challenges so as to have a properly functioning system at the local government level throughout the country,” he said.

“We have managed to struggle and get sufficient funds to embark on the recruitment of a total of 6,172 health personnel.

Accordingly, we have managed to identify additional sh6.5b as seed money to enable the Ministry of Health to start on this endeavour,” Mbabazi said, in his statement to the House.

He said this will be provided by the Ministry of Finance through a supplementary well -costed work plan.

Personnel to be recruited are senior medical officers, medical officers, senior clinical officers, clinical officers, anesthetic assistants, enrolled nurses, enrolled midwives, laboratory technicians, nursing officers and midwives.

The ministries to suffer the budget cuts to raise the sh6.5b as public service, justice, lands, trade, works, energy, gender, water, Local Government, information and tourism. Government bodies include the National Planning Authority, Uganda Tourism Board, Uganda Registration Services Bureau, KCCA, Local Government Finance Commission and NEMA.

Others are NAADS secretariat, Uganda National Bureau of Standards, Uganda Cotton Development Organisation, Uganda Land Commission, National Forestry Authority and Uganda Coffee Development Authority.

He said medical officers working at Health Centre III will earn sh2.5m per month, including an enhanced consolidated allowance.

At Health Centre IV, the Government will employ two medical doctors and 47 other professional workers and support staff while at Health Centre III, a total of 19 health workers and support staff.

He said sh3b will cover the recruitment process costs while sh3.5b is available to pay the wage bill of the people recruited.

Health minister Dr. Christine Ondoa told Parliament that besides the recruitment ban, one other challenge has been the poor remuneration of doctors.

“That is why we have not been attracting and retaining doctors at Health Centre IVs which was not covered by the recruitment ban,” she said.

Aruu county MP Odonga Otto said there were 507 unfulfilled government promises and that giving only health workers was being selective.

Cecilia Ogwal, the Woman MP for Dokolo said the supplementary budget is not allowed according to the Budget Act because it preempts Parliament actions

The chairman of the health committee, Sam Lyomoki, said the move was a positive direction for the people of Uganda.

Emmanuel Ddombo, the MP for Bunyole County, said more mothers would die if the budget had been postponed again.

Tim Lwanga MP Kyamuswa agreed that the proposal presented by the Prime Minister was acceptable.

Betty Amongi said the committee on health sat with the Ministry of Health and gave a detailed work plan that is why it had recommended sh260b and was shocked that the Prime Minister was asking for a new workplan.

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga said they need to save the country from the budget tension by passing it as soon as possible.

Accessed on Wed. 26^th September, 2012 from: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/635635-govt-to-recruit-6-172-health-workers---mbabazi.html

The Journey to Ssese Islands, Kalangala District

No pot holes but we need life jackets: Jimmy aboard MV Kalangala

Whereas we talk of potholes, I wonder why we  forget one of the other sectors in the trasport sector, of course its the water transport. I had not travelled by the MV Kalangala till when i got an opportunity to join FHRI in Kalangala to facilitate a workshop on sensitizing the communities and district leadership on the Neighborhood Assembly concept. The journey from the Rwenzori Mountains to Kampala was the usual stories of potholes, then through to Entebbe beating trafic jam. Now, after boarding the ferry the language changed from potholes to life jackets. Ofcourse no life jacket was provided it was another experience of how our friends who ply the water transport  also have a different language. I want to share my travel experience and the efforts government has done to take services nearer to the people. Indeed, during the trip to Kalangala, alot of questions were lingering my mind, do we need more districts or improved services! While I flipped through the newvision of Wed. 19 September, more scandles had been unearthed by the Police investigating the pension scandles of Ugx 63Bn. Now that reminded me of the Ugandan rich class who accumulate wealth by hook or crook. Boarding MV Kalangala, shows how somebody put service above self. The question of social accountability was answered and if other players could emulate those who bothered to provide the MV Kalangala service, then we can think of transforming Uganda to another level in the next 20 years.



All was not roses as from Ssese Islands to Bufumira Islands, the ferry was a past tense, we were ushered into a boat in real life, we had never travelled in a boat. We all said our last prayers but with hope we reached our distination after 30Minutes. On the water live in the air, but this time around with lfe jackets. The experienced team briefed us about ettiquette on water and to keep our life jackets on. It was another talk of the day while we kept comparing transport on water, potholes and bringing services nearer to the people. My concern was, which sector needs immediate attention. People who complain of potholes or those who need life jackets.  If we were given to make a budget while in Kalangala the attention could be on life jackets and improving the services.



 

Rose (Right and Jimmy) aboard a boat to Bufumira Island. Chris (DGAP) was on the same boat

As development workers, expect to reach all categories of people, it takes courage to board a boat while many people would have asked, is the boat insured? but what about those who use the travel without life jackets, arent they part of the citizens that we claim to speak for? I apploud the district leadership of Kalangala for taking a risk by accepting to work and serve our people. Rose of FHRI, has shown what is meant by working with the vulnerable groups..

Thanks

Jimmy and Rose
In the field, Kalangala District

CEWIT’s Experience in observing Butambala County by-elections

The journey to Butambala District was another new experience in my field of governance in Uganda. This time it was not training the monitor or having feedback meetings with the district Authorities but observing the electoral process for the Member of Parliament in Butambala County after court had nullified election of Hon. Kikulukunyu after a petition by Kivumbi accusing  Kikulukunyu of  voter bribery.  With the Tags accredited observer by the electoral commission secretary on neck, we  headed to Butambala as a team of six people from CEWIT Offices.

 Although we did not know the road that leads to Butumbala as a team we were confident that we would find the right place phone thanks to the Emma who used the  smart Phone that acted us a guiding tool for direction and within an hour we had reached Butambala district. No wonder, on the first sight one would see the tension of the community members because of heavy deployment of the police at all the 13 polling station visited. It is not surprising that inspector general of Police Gen. Kaihura had joined the police and ready to prevent violence related incident which would affect the voting process for 5 candidates contesting for elections and these are Kivumbi Muhammed Muwanga, Faisal Kikulukunyu, Ibrahim Batemyetto, Ssentomgo Shariff and Farouk walungama.

 Our work started when we visited Nakatooke Umea P/S polling station where 100 voters had  voted out of 411 registered voters.  Three candidates had agents at the polling station while Farouk Walungama was the candidate who did not have an agent at most of the polling stations. We later headed to Kabira polling station by 12:30 and we were surprised that there were no electoral commission staffs putting on uniforms.  We visited 13 polling station, it was important to note that elections between 7:30 and 8:30 where the delay was caused by time taken offloading and distributing voting materials. Unlike the usual complaints that the voting materials were not enough,  this time it was the reverse as it was proved in all the polling stations visited the voter materials (the voters register, ink, ballot papers) were enough.

Together with my colleagues, John, Jane, Rosee, Vincent and Emma we visited the tally centre at 4: OO Pm and there was heavy police deployment at the centre with several police vehicles and antiriot untouchable vehicles. The situation was cum and the members for the voting process to end and process of tallying to begin after 5:00 PM.

The results were announced as follows by EC at 12:00PM where Kivumbi Muhammed Muwanga  had 14,764 votes, Faisal Kikulumunyu 12,792 votes, Ibrahim Batemyetto 150 votes, SSentongo sheriff 124 votes and Farouk Walungama got 60 votes.  Basing on the results of this election, i feel there is still need for increased CIVIC education as the number of invalid votes is still high for example 6 votes were invalid at mayugwe while at Kyerima polling station 16 votes were invalid. There is need for improved time management in the process of starting elections as most elections started late compared to 7:00 am when election are supposed.  It would be unfair I do appreciate the good practice of having a supervisor on every polling station was a very good practice that should be replicated in other elections. With the above I feel the electoral process in Butambala was relatively free and fair.

Sheila K
RWECO

LUWERO DISTRICT LOCAL GOVERNMENT READY FOR THE ICT PLATFORM FOR SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The Deputy District Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Oketayot C.  James assured a team of Civil Society Organization under CEW-IT consortium, that the District is willing to embrace the e-society platforms for social accountability.

James, stated that as long as the platform assures verification of the content uploaded, its a good contributions to enabling receiving feedback on service delivery from the citizens to whom the District serves.

This was supported by the District Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Mr. Segawa Godfrey who asked the CSOs to raise awareness about the project from not only the civil servants but the Political leaders and the Citizens who own the District. He preferred that this sensitization should be in local languages and embracing all the media channels.

The CFO asked the District Information officer (DIO) Ms Nakibuuka Stellah to prioritize the e-society components costs such as contribution to website hosting, e-library in her department budget when the CSO contribution ends in December 2014.

On their part, CSO representative led by Ms Rose Nanyonjo from FRHI and Mr. John Silco from RIC-NET assured the District civil servants leaders that their organization commit to develop a dynamic website, e-library, a bulk sms platform, a citizens voice (feedback) platform and support training of the District staff to maintain these platforms. The domain name registrations and hosting charges for all theses platforms will be met by the CSO with support from HIVOS and EU for 24 months. The CSO asked the District to request for the originally Domain name www.luwero.go.ug from UCC so as the district identify is continued. At this point a question was asked about the linkage between this project and e-government initiative of the government to which CSO members said that he two projects are complimentary.

Members of the CSO fraternity assured the District that this is part of the project that is enhancing Social Accountability in 25 Districts of the 5 regions in Uganda. The informed meeting that its regional implemented by RWECO, FHRI, ACORD, PAC Uganda and CEFORD in Rwenzori, Central, Teso, Acholi and West Nile regions respectively. All these effort are coordinated by CEW-IT (Citizens Election Watch –IT ) and RIC-NET is the ICT partner of all the consortium members.

The DCAO ended the roundtable discussion appreciating the efforts of CSO towards the District on Social accountability and promised the District leaders will sign the MOU with FHRI when properly printed as they had found no problem with the draft that was provided.

Ruhaama platform irks Ms Museveni

By PEREZ RUMANZI
Posted  Friday, August 17  2012 at  01:00

In Summary

Undermined?. Ms Museveni accuses district and sub-county councillors and LC3 chairpersons of undermining her authority as the area MP by demanding for service delivery through platforms.

The Ruhaama Constituency MP and First Lady, Ms Janet Museveni, has reportedly criticised leaders in the area for creating a forum to discuss development challenges without her knowledge.

In a closed door meeting with area leaders at Nyarutuntu, the headquarters for Ruhaama County on Monday, Ms Museveni reportedly accused area councillors, LC chairpersons and other leaders of undermining her authority as the area MP, by creating a forum to demand for service delivery behind her back.

Ms Museveni also demanded for the disbandment of the platform dubbed Eishazi rya Ruhaama, which the leaders contested.
“The First Lady has been misinformed by her close aides in Ntungamo that we have formed a platform to fight her, that we want to bring someone to stand against her in 2016 which is not the case,” Mr Denis Muhumuza, the Itojo Sub-county Councillor and chief platform mobiliser, told Daily Monitor on Wednesday.
Mr Muhumuza further added that the purpose of the platform is to discuss development in the area and is not politically motivated.

The forum, which started at the end of last year, has convened several times and deliberated on issues like creation of Ruhaama District from Ntungamo and tarmacking of the Ntungamo-Mirama Hills road.

However, a source, who attended the closed door meeting, says Ms Museveni was reportedly irked by the demand to create Ruhaama District without first consulting her .

“If we are to bring out anything related to Ruhaama, I believe there is your member of parliament where these ideas can pass. Why then do you have to go out and form those so called organisations? We cannot allow this to continue,” Mr Muhumuza quoted Ms Museveni as saying.hare This Story

The Ruhaama Sub-county chairperson, Mr Tom Rwomushana, who was also in the meeting, said many of them were angered by Ms Museveni’s misconception of other people’s ideas.

“Does she feel she is the only person to plan for us? We too want to discuss our ideas. We have talked about this road for a long time. We can’t keep quiet as we are also being criticised by our people,” Mr Rwomushana said.

The Ntungamo District chairperson, Mr Denis Singahache, confirmed the meeting took place but declined to disclose the details.

Ms Museveni’s political assistant George Bakunda also acknowledged that the meeting was chaired by the First Lady who was not happy with the conduct of the area leaders.

“That group is serving its interests and not programmes of the MP. The MP is not happy with what they are doing. She said there should always be one leaders’ meeting which she should chair,” Mr Bakunda told Daily Monitor yesterday.

Kalangala Leaders impress Technology for Social Accountability

A Team of CSO representative  on Wednesday 1 August 2012 met  with representative of the District Leadership of Kalangala to discuss issues on  how ICT support citizens access to information and feedback mechanism to strengthened social accountability.

on possible means of transport  to the Kalangala;  ferry in Bukakata and small boats between islands.

This was part of the Social Accountability project  implemented CEW-IT and partners in 25 District of  the 5 regions in Uganda with support from  EU, HIVOS and DGAP (Government of Uganda).

Mr. suliaman, Mr. Fedrick (D/CAO), John Silco (RIC-NET), Mr. Bulemezi 

 The team which comprised of Ms Rose Nayondo from Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), Mr. Ssenyojo Suleiman from Kalangala Human Rights Defenders (KHRD) and Mr. John Silco from RIC-NET had a round table discussion with Ms.  Ssembiya Fausta the District vice Chair Person, Mr.  Wanje Micheal the Deputy CAO and Mr. Balemeezi Fredrick the Principal Assistant Secretary.

The CSO representatives introduced the planned online and offline platforms that will support the District leadership to enhance sharing of timely and credible information.  These includes support for the District website development, the District e-library, the  District bulk sms, hosting leaders on Radio programs, support to District interface meeting  with CSO and the Citizens; conducting  Neighborhood assemblies (Barraza)  and support to citizens feedback platform http://www.citizensvoice.ug  using the 6030 short code.

Ms Fausta (in White) the Vice Chair Person of Kalangala District

 Ms Rose  (FHRI) explaining a point to the  D/CAO

The Vice Chair Person was impressed with the package but asked the team to stress the radio programs and the Baraza (neighborhood assemblies). She pledged her office support and participation in providing credible information to the citizens.

On his part, the D/CAO was happy with bulk sms support, he believed that this will help his office to offer alerts and reminders to both staff and citizens. He highlighted that another problem in the District is HIV AIDS prevalence believed to be very high. He revealed that out of the 10 suspected rapists or rape victims, 7 have been found HIV+,; so a ration of 7:10 if this group can be taken as a sample.

He raised concern that the citizens’ feedback platform should have a clear verification of reports mechanism to ensure that the citizens’ reports are also credible. The D/ CAO promised District support to ensure that the results of the project are sustained and agreed to fast track the review of the MOU  with FHRI.

Om his part, Mr. Fredrick reported that Kalangala website www.kahangala.co.ug is no longer functional and the support has come at the right time. He revealed that the costs of delivering services in Kalangala  is high since most of the travels are by water which uses twice the fuel used on road transport.

Action needed are: to have  the District input in the MOU within in two weeks,  to start the official process of getting the administrations rights of the domain name, the CSO to start designing the  Mockup site and arrange subsequent visits. 

The struggle to reach the ferry in time

 The District Vice Chairperson requested for an increase in the number of sub –counties under the Social accountability project and involvement of more citizens. 

She commended the work of FHRI in the District and the local partner KHRD.

On their party, the CSO were very grateful to the willingness of Kalangala District support to the project and hopped that with such support the  citizens voice in social accountability will be pronounced.

KOBOKO AND ARUA DISTICTS LEADERS SUPPORT CEFFORD CONTRIBUTION ON E-SOICETY.

ENHANCING CIVIC COMPETENCE TO STRENGTHEN SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN 25 DISTRICTS, IN FIVE REGIONS OF UGANDA” is an EU funded project and one of it’s components is the design of District websites and E-libraries where RIC-NET is mandated implement  on behalf  of CEW-IT.

    The core objective of these websites is to strengthen information sharing within the Districts and with partners outside the District The key roles of RIC-NET includes; Sensitizing and training District leaders and staff on use and value of websites;  Domain name registration and hosting fee payments;  Designing and building dynamic websites for Districts;  Designing and development of E-libraries for the Districts;  Integrating web 2.0 tools and other social media such as twitter, face book, youtube,d-group with district website;  Integrating website issues with Huduma and bulk Sms.

Interface meetings with District leaders

Two districts were selected for the first round of meetings and that was Koboko and Arua.

 Koboko District

The meeting took place on 9^th July 2012 at Koboko District headquarters in the Chairperson’s office. In attendance were:

S/N	Name	Title	Sex
01.	Hon. Nginya Hassan Said	District Chairperson	M
02.	Mr. Asenda Patrick	Assist. C.A.O	M
03.	Ms Adraa Gloria winnie	Dist. Information officer	F
04.	Hon.Mukili	Secretary Social services	M
05.	Hon. Innocent Paul	Deputy speaker	M
06.	Mr. Abele Emmanuel Moro	P.P.O	M
07.	Hon. Goro Grace	Vice C/person	F
08.	Mr.Albert	Prog.officer CEFORD	M
09.	Mr.M John Silco	Executive Director RIC-NET	M
10.	Mr. Okuti Richard	Partner RIC-NET	M
11.	Mr.Yosia Baluku	ICTO-RIC-NET	M

  The roundtable meeting discussed  the District website that was provided by UCC  which has not been active for a while and needs redesign and activating www.koboko.go.ug. The E-library as a component of the website and way of cooperation and sharing information and responsibilities during the implementation period. The training component that will ensure that the District Staff update the website and other components them selves was stressed as a sustainability aspect.

The  highlighted  challenges included the lack of ICT equipment  for the District Information officer; unreliable internet connectivity; inadequate technical knowledge, finances among others.

The District chairperson appreciated the CSO work and pledged   total cooperation  of District the leadership  to have this fulfilled in the quickest time possible.

Way forward

    A Draft  M.O.U shared was to be reviewed and signed between Koboko District and CEFORD. The District focal person to start collecting current information from departments so as work to become much easier and quicker as it starts. District information officer mandated to be the focal person for this project.  the Mockup  design and development of the online platforms commences immediately. The District  CAO  to write to UCC to get the administrative rights of District website and Domain name.

Arua District Local Government

The meeting was held between (2:30pm) of 9^th July 2012 in the Chief Administrative officer at the District headquarters. In attendance were:

S/N	Name	Title	sex
01.	Ms. Sarah O	Senior Assistant secretary-CAOs office	F
02.	Ms. Achan Stella	District population officer	F
03.	Hon. Achema Genesis	District speaker	M
04.	Ms. Megwe Jane	District information officer	F
05.	Ms Faridah	Project officer CEFORD	F
06.	Mr.John silco	ED RIC-NET	M
07.	Mr. Ayayo	Officer CEFORD	M
08.	Mr. Okuti Richard	Partner RIC-NET	M
09.	Mr. Yosia Baluku	ICTO-RIC-NET	M

The senior Assistant secretary from the CAO’s office

The  concept of the ICT component in this project “ENHANCING CIVIC COMPETENCE TO STRENGTHEN SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN 25 DISTRICTS, IN FIVE REGIONS OF UGANDA” was shared and components as  the re-design of the District websites and e-libraries. 

These online platforms would be support by training of the District focal staff in updating and use of the platforms.

  Feedback from the citizens was to be captured through the  www.citezensvoice.ug  a web based platform that use the  sms. The bulk sms platform to be added to support the District to send sms alerts and reminder to the public and District Staff.

The District officials  represented by the District Speaker appreciated and welcomed the project and pledged for maximum support and cooperation.

Way forward

Ø  An M.O.U is shared and more input be made by the District leadership and later signed between Arua District and CEFORD.

Ø  The District focal person for this project to be appointed by C.A.O and that the D.I.O  is by default part of the team.

Ø  The design and development of the online platforms commences immediately after the signing of the M.O.U

Ø  C.A.O writes to UCC to get more Administrative authhorities  on the previous District website.