Mbale city is operating without a budget that has been authorized.

According to URN, Mbale city is running without an approved budget. This was brought up last week at a meeting between Mbale City Council officials and Peter Ogwang, the President’s State Minister for Economic Monitoring.

During the discussion, Ogwang expressed concern over the city’s declining local revenue receipts. He inquired of the authorities about the amount of money in the current fiscal year’s budget and whether the city had one. The city clerk and the mayor, on the other hand, did not respond to the minister.

Mbale’s budget is anticipated to be in excess of Shillings 50 billion. Local revenue receipts are estimated to total 4.7 billion shillings. The budget estimates were presented to the council for discussion and approval, but they were not approved.

Abdallah Magambo, the Deputy Speaker of Mbale City Council, told the minister that the budget estimates had never been authorized by the council. He added that when the estimates were presented to the council, it was not completely formed.

The budget was never legally authorized due of the Covid-19 outbreak and a shortage of funds to pay the councillors, said to Kasim Namugali, the Mbale city mayor. He stated that the budget committee debated on the budget and approved it pending full council approval.

While the deputy speaker and mayor declared the budget had not been authorized, Mbale city clerk David Kyansanku said the budget had been approved and signed by the city speaker.

Mbale City Development Forum President David Wetaka claims that as members of a forum that represents the people of Mbale, they have never attended a budget meeting where concerns affecting people are discussed.

He claimed that he had learned from councillors that the budget estimates had never been approved.