“Various official documents enjoin local government units to help enhance effective and transparent governance in Uganda. Decentralisation is the policy under which local governments operate. Local governments here refer to district councils, city council, municipalities, city and division councils, town councils, and sub-county councils. Decentralisation aims to involve the people in their governance – in decision-making, in identifying their own problems, in setting priorities and planning their implementation and monitoring, in ensuring better use of resources, and in ensuring value for money. The decentralisation policy is designed to achieve a number of objectives. a) Transfer real power(devolution) to local governments, thus reducing the workload on central government officials. b) Establish decentralisation as the guiding principle applied to all levels of government to ensure citizens’ participation and democratic control in decision-making. c) Achieve good governance, which is a prerequisite for better performance of public servants. d) Bring political and administrative control over services to the point where they are actually delivered, thereby improving accountability and effectiveness, and promoting people’s feeling of ownership of programmes and projects executed in their areas. e) Free local managers from central constraints and, as a long-term goal, allow them to develop organisational structures tailored to local circumstances. f) Improve capacities of councils to plan, finance and manage the delivery of services to their constituents.”
