On 20th April 2024, the minister for presidency Hon Milly Babalanda confirmed that the President's Office had recruited two staff in the Resident District Commissioner's office to support activities in the office.
This sparked debate on the added burden to the taxpayer where each district will be added two Assistant RDCs
Parliament through the speaker Rt.Hon Anita Among has asked Hon.Milly Babalanda, Minister of Presidency to explain the criteria used in the selection and appointment of the recent Assistant RDCs, after the Opposition raised concern on the questionable character of some of the people that have been appointed to these positions.
“Let us get the report and if it is true the money was approved, then how much was it? It still brings you to the calibre of people that the Leader of Opposition is talking about. Do you just bring in people who just go on rampage, like the one, I don’t want to mention the name,” said
Hon Joel Ssenyonyi, Leader of Opposition who wondered why Gov’t that has been spearheading the abolishing and merger of some agencies back to Ministries would be the same regime to appoint over 300 Assistant RDCs, wondering what roles the new team will do that isn’t being done by the RDCs and Deputy RDCs. “Government has been pushing us on rationalization saying, we need to rationalize on entities send them back to the Ministries so that we can save taxpayers’ money and cut down on Government expenditure, and that is a compelling argument.
''But while we are rationalizing, here then comes another huge Government expenditure because you can’t preach water and then drink wine. What role are Assistant RDCs going to play that RDCs and Deputy RDCs aren’t playing''? Ssenyonyi asked.
However,Hon. David Bahati, Minister of State for Industry called out Ssenyonyi for feigning ignorance about the appointment of Assistant RDCs, yet he was part of the team at Parlaiment that approved funds for the appointmnet of Assistant RDCs in the current 2023/24 budget, and the Minister of Presidency was merely taking action.
“I remember in this budget, we approved money for Assistant RDCs and the Minister has taken action, and then you come back as if you weren’t involved, you were involved in approving,” said Bahati.
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