By Steven Enatu
SOROTI CITY
Soroti city council has exposed how their technical staff are pocketing local revenue collected and under-declaring money collected from various sources.
Simon Peter Okiring, the councilor representing Soroti City East stressed that this has caused delays in settling the councilors’ arrears due to complaints of not enough funding and yet money is collected but going to individuals’ pockets.
He alleges that money is collected from places like Oderai market and Obuku but not declared to the city authority.
He submitted a receipt before the council speaker, Juliet Agonyo reading Soroti city with no logo being used by some individuals to collect dues from markets in Soroti City West but are not declared.
The receipt according to Peter Pex Paak, the Resident City commissioner Soroti city said was also brought to his office by the area MP, Jonathan Ebwalu. He says he made a call to the western Division Town clerk who admitted that the individuals have contracts with the division to collect local revenue.
Okiring further alleges that many contracts are given to companies that do not comply with the terms in the contract agreement citing the example of Oped that collects money from the city abattoir but only remits 3.8million instead of about 8million. This raises concerns of where the other monies go?
Isaac Asaku, the councilor representing Soroti City West said that many washing bays are seen operational within the city but only one around Oligoi is reflected in the procurement system, the rest their revenue collection is not known to council.
Harriet Agwang, the female youth councilor Soroti City said that at the new market, Lorries that bring food items are charged 10,000shs for parking and fee of up to 20,000shs for loading by town agents but little is declared.
The reaction attracted the attention of the council speaker who then referred the matter to the general purpose committee together with heads of departments to scrutinize all the sources of local revenue from 2018 till now and give the updated report to Soroti city council on the next council sitting due on 27th January 2022.
