Mayors demand budget increment

SEVEN district mayors in the Western Province have requested MPs to increase their proposed budget to implement development programmes in their areas.“The money allocated to the districts is not enough compared to the development programmes planned for the 2008 fiscal year,” Karongi District Mayor Bernard Kayumba argued yesterday.They collectively asked members of the Chamber of Deputies’ Standing Committee on Budgetary affairs to effect the increment.The districts are Nyabihu, Rutsiro, Karongi, Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Rubavu and Ngororero.They argued that the education programme was not given enough money and that accounts for low salaries of teachers. The little allocations to education, the mayors said, don’t only mean poor pay to the teachers but would also affect the lives of students in terms of food, scholarstic materials and school desks.Finance Minister James Musoni gave the following budgetary allocations to the districts: Frw 2 944 606 115 (Karongi), Frw 2 395 898 986 (Nyabihu), Frw3 110 869 384 (Rusizi), Frw2 733 924 232 for Rubavu, Frw2 553 976 381 for Ngororero, Frw3 143 222 116 (Nyamasheke) and Frw 2 229 629 515 for Rutsiro.Rutsiro Mayor John Ndimubahire said: “The District has only Frw92 allocated to cater for daily feeding allowances per each student for a day; we request that this problem be addressed to enable the District improve the academic standards of students.” And Karongi’s Kayumba said that the proposed 2008 budget for districts doesn’t cater for bigger development projects aimed at improving the people’s standards of living. Most of these districts are home to vulnerable groups of people who have to depend on government support, he said. However the MPs said that it was not possible to immediately increase the districts’ budgets given the country’s financial muscle.MP Francis Kaboneka also urged them to put in place that special development projects for the youths and women, and to help both groups elect representatives to their respective national councils. He said that the self-help projects will solve the groups’ financial problems. Ends

National

Mayors demand budget increment