The Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, has urged district leaders, especially budget officers, directors of finance and planners, to properly manage public funds in order to speed up the implementation of performance contracts.

He made the remarks yesterday during a meeting with leaders from all the districts in the country to discuss how the 2010/2011 performance contracts can be efficiently implemented.

"I want you to manage public funds properly by directing cash in various activities and projects in the districts that require financing,” he said.

He mentioned lack of capacity of some local leaders as one of the challenges that still hinder proper management of public funds.

"We prepared the budget together and now we are coming to the end of the first quarter and nothing has been done in regard to the use of the 30 percent of districts’ budget towards implementing the performance contracts and other related activities,” he noted.

Musoni cautioned district budget managers to do away with engaging in political activities, saying that their primary duty is to properly manage the cash flow of their respective districts.

He tasked them to ensure that by September, they should have used 30 percent of the budget in district programmes and 60 percent by the end of December.

Musoni said added anything that hinders the speeding up and implementation of performance contracts would not be tolerated.

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