By John Ogulei
SOROTI
The Authorities at Soroti City have confirmed that the swearing in of the new council will be tomorrow 18th May 2021.
According to the Soroti City Acting Town Clerk, Moses Otimong, the swearing in will begin at 09:00AM and end at 10:30AM before the Chief Magistrate proceeding to swear in the members of Soroti District Council.
The swearing in ceremony of Soroti City and District council will take place at Soroti District Lukiko hall according to Otimong.
Soroti City West Division Mayor, Patrick Emaru and East Division Mayor, Paul Omer are both expected to be sworn in at Soroti Lukiko Hall before proceeding to their respective Divisions to swear in their councilors.
Meanwhile, the Authorities have set up tough conditions for the swearing exercise in a bid to avert the Spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the strict measures are; nobody will access the venue without an invitation card, Councilors are allowed to come with one person, Division Mayors with three people while the City Mayor is allowed to come with a maximum of five people.
Otimong who also spoke at length revealed that, after swearing in of the council they will sit to decide the City’s 2021/2022 financial year budget.
“I have been refusing to sit with the old council to pass the budget because I knew they were going away. So the new councilors together with the technical team will sit after swearing in to approve the budget,” Otimong said.
When asked whether the new councilors were going to get salaries for this month (May), Mr. Otimong said they are going to sit to decide on their salaries after swearing in.
“We have not yet decided on their pay until we approve our budget. What you need to know is our budget is not like that of parliament. Our budget is always determined by revenue collection of the financial year,” Otimong added.
Otimong who was not short of words said, the new leadership of Soroti City has a big task ahead to make sure that Soroti city delivers to the expectations of the people of Soroti.
