Lord Mayor of Kampala, Erias Lukwago, says the delayed appointment of directors to the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is standing in the way of service delivery.

He advised that the directors must be appointed quickly or KCCA will incur a steep price. Lukwago explained that out of 10 directors, only four have so far been appointed.

These include the Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka; Dr Daniel Ayen Okello, the Director of Public Health and Environment; Esau Galukande, the Director of Gender and Community Services and Juliet Namuddu Director of Education Services.

“The city executive community decries having many senior staff, in an acting capacity. We wonder why the appointing authority is hesitant to appoint substantive and qualified people to occupy these positions,” Lukwago said in his address to the council members.

Lukwago pointed out that, with only four KCCA directors, the city authority is unable to deliver on work which is actually for ten directors and so efficiency and effective service delivery to the residents of Kampala is practically impossible.

These directors are responsible for making Kampala a better place for everyone who visits, lives or works in the city.

The Executive Director provides citywide leadership, setting an overall vision for Kampala and creating plans and policies to achieve it through his or her ten directors.

However, when the directors are not equal to the task at hand, problems arise.

“This has resulted into despondence and contributed to institutional inertia among others,” he stated.

Lukwago painted a bleak picture of financial loss, saying the City Authority has lost vast sums of money due to litigation. This he blamed on the incompetence of the previously acting Executive Director, Engineer Andrew Kitaka, who rendered legal opinions ‘casually’ and this led to an avalanche of suits against the Authority.

He said if the situation is not reversed as soon as possible, the Authority will incur even more legal debts that will be difficult to surmount and thereby cause insolvency.