THE CONCEPT PAPER ON CAPACITY BUILDING FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE TRAINING

GOOD GOVERNANCE PRACTICE (GOGOP)

Good Governance Practice (GOGOP) is a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) registered at Wakiso district.  The (CSO) office is located 8 miles Entebbe Highway at Kajjansi Trading Centre.

The Mission of GOGOP

To train, support and advocate for good governance for sustainable, efficient and effective service delivery which is corrupt free as well as promote participation in governance issues by all in local governments.

The Vision of GOGOP

To have democratic, participatory decentralized local governments that can sustain development and delivers services efficiently to the people.

1.      Background

Good Governance Training arises from Africa Good Governance Training as developed by Municipal Development Partnership of Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP – ESA) and World Bank Institute (WBI).

The training was initially on Radio Waves and the course which is divided into 4 parts has since been recorded as audio on CDs.  The course components are:

1.   Governing Municipalities without Corruption

2.   Civic participation for Good Governance

3.   Municipal Finance Part 1

4.   Municipal Finance “Participatory Budgeting” – Part 2

Good Governance Practice (GOGOP) has the obligation among other programmes to disseminate what (MDP – ESA) developed together with issues on Democracy; Human Rights to mention some.

2.      The Problem

The non-involvement of local people in policy, planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of what is to be done, Why it is to be done; and How it is to be done, hence the neglected lever of change towards combating the mismanagement of public affairs, corruption and abuse of power, lack of re-enforcement of accountability because the local society don’t know that it is their right to access information and through involvement in decision making to improve the local government service delivery.  

3.      Some cases in Point:

1)    Voter bribery rampant in Sembabule as reported by John Tugume, 
The January 7 by-elections for the Sembabule Woman and Bujumba County MP seats were marred by ballot stuffing, political arrests and voting by the under-aged, an election monitoring group said. 

The Democracy Monitoring Group (Demgroup), a coalition of civil society organisations headed by the Uganda Joint Christian Council said in their report released in Kampala  yesterday that at some of the polling stations monitored, people who were not residents were allowed to vote while some polling officials were biased. “There was bribery by various players including someCabinet Ministers who are said to have bought alcohol, sugar and even given cash to voters. This happened in Njoga village, Mugoye Sub-county in Kalangala District,” Fr Silvester Arinaitwe, the Executive Director of Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC), said. 

“At Kairasha Polling Station in Lugusulu Sub-county in Sembabule District, the Presiding Officer demonstrated open hostility to the agents of one of the candidates and behaved in a generally partial and disgraceful manner,” he added. The Sembabule Woman MP seat was won by National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) Hanifa Kawooya, whose election had earlier been nullified by the Supreme Court over rigging.

2)    The Economic Policy and Research Centre (November 4, 2003) presented their study which showed that the private tender system in 6 districts studied that ie Mbale, Kamuli, Mubende, Masaka, Ntungamo and Arua has ‘very serious defects’ and amounts to little more than a transfer of money from the ordinary often very poor tax payers, to the pockets of richer tax collection agents and their associates. “Given that gross profit margins to tenderers vary from between 100% to almost 1,000% in the above districts, the private tendering system amounts to a gigantic rip off,” said Professor Frank Ellise, a Senior Consultant on the EPRC study team.

This happens because tax collection contracts for market places, fish landing sites and parishes are tendered out on the basis of an “assessed” reserve price that is supposed to represent the amount of tax likely to be collected from that market or site. tenderers are usually permitted an “official” profit margin of about 20% above this reserve price. In other wards for an assessed revenue potential of 1milloin shillings, the reserve price would be shs 800,000. It is in the assessors’ interest to keep the reserve price low so that the tenderes have the potential to make very high unofficial profits on the taxes they collect… profits that can ultimately be shared with corrupt district officials, tender board members and local politicians.

The gap between revenue actually collected and the official tender price represents profits of as much as 407% in Kamuli, 558% in Masaka and an alarming 970% in Ntungamo. This money could have been obtained y councils if there was participatory involvement of the people. this situation is very discouraging especially when we consider that it is the poor who are being hurt the most and, in this type of circumstances,  because there is a revenue gap in the local governments, the local governments continue to search for new ways to generate higher incomes hence burdening the residents with ever increasing numbers and types pf levies, licences, fees and taxes to the point that multiple local level licensing and taxation, and its maladministration, is now among the leading cause of poverty in Uganda. (The Monitor, Monday, November 17, 2003).

3)    In 2006, Uganda debt network carried out a study to establish the extent to which budgeting at the local government level goes beyond the annual ritual exercise of dispensing funds sent from the central government according to set conditions aiming at solving the problems facing the poor. The study was carried out against the background of general perception that in the majority of cases, local governments’ plans and budgets don’t aim at solving the problems facing the poor, but are rather an annual ritual exercise of obtaining funds in accordance to the decentralization framework. Politians, especially in the district councils often allocate the majority of the resources to the sectors that have physical and visible out puts and that can attract public attention and subsequently strengthening their political base.  These include health education and roads. So all in all, citizens require adequate information to participate in budget debates hence be able to get a slice meant see to their welfare and also ensure that resources are not squandered.

4.       Involvement of the Community in Participatory Governance

Participatory Governance is the process to develop community structures and mechanisms that are truly responsive to community needs and aspirations. The participatory governance system constitutes the basis for effective management of poverty reduction initiative at individual, household and community level. The participatory governance constitutes the pillar for development of an evidence based planning and performance based service delivery for effective use of resources and improved accountability in the management of public affairs. The participatory governance system offers a two way communication in which the community reciprocates positively to the government policies and programmes by uplifting their well being. This relationship begets confidence among members of the community and trust in the state decision, resulting in good economic, political and administrative governance at all levels.

5.      Community Participatory Dynamics

This covers a spectrum of activities involving people in community life, from passive involvement to intensive action oriented participation. Active community participation is the key to building an empowered community and it is critical to success of poverty reduction programs.. Community participation system tends to share several characteristics.  In participatory communities, many people are involved in community’s decisions making and other activities. Participatory communities are open to involvement by all groups, and responsibilities are divided up so that the special talents and interests of contributing organizations are engaged. Participatory communities have many centres of activities and community action engages the natural enthusiasm and talents of citizens. Participating communities conduct their business openly and publicize it widely .citizens are well informed about community involvement in meaningful roles.

6.      Training as a Solution

Training various categories of people in the locality and from outside that is:

1.   Local Public Officials

2.   Members of the Local Community

3.   Representatives of Civil Society

4.   Local Elected officials

5.   Students

The content of the training:

                               I.      The Course components as developed by (MDP –ESA)

                             II.      Human Rights (Inalienable rights)

                          III.      Democracy

                          IV.      Rule of Law

                             V.      Elections (Competitive free and fair elections)

                          VI.      Freedom of expression

                        VII.      Social Accountability

7.      The Idea of Capacity Building

It is true; Willy Kituuka from 2005 to 2007 was a trainee beneficiary of the Africa Good Governance Program on Radio Waves.  He got the calling to disseminate the course plus other components of Good Governance to the local community in Wakiso district.  It is this challenge which calls for Capacity Building to be able to deliver on ground.

9.      BUDGET

NO	PARTICULARS	POUNDS
1	A Laptop Computer	800
2	Mobile Internet	165
3	2 CD Radios	168
4	Chairs with arms/work extensions (55pcs)	1980
5	Rent for the premises where to train from for 12 months	960
6	Reams of paper 10 writing and 10 typing	80
7	1 Computer printer	180
8	1 Stabilizer	100
9	Work books 4 sets of 50 books	1200
	Pounds 5633	5633