Chief Administrative Officers (CAOS) who will return budget money to the treasury will be penalized, Ben Kumumanya, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government has said.

Kumumanya was speaking during a quarterly meeting for CAOs and municipal town clerks in Kampala on Tuesday.

“The money should not be returned. It is money is meant for the delivery of services. Returning the money is a sign of incompetence.”

“You have been given money for the financial year, which starts July to June. If you reach June and you have not used it, then you have sabotaged certain services that were meant to use that money,” he said.

Further stating that “The money given to the CAOs is sometimes for recruitment of certain professionals to deliver services to the public. We are trying to make it costly to those officers, we want to punish them such that they take the matter for recruitment seriously. This is money for recruiting a medical officer, you have money to recruit them, so if you don’t, you are denying people the services of a medical officer.”