A drop in funding from the Central Government has forced Gulu district to cut its proposed annual budget by over 507 Million Shillings in the new financial year, 2019/ 2020, according to the budget estimates tabled before council recently.
In the current financial year running 2018/ 2019, Gulu budgeted for 34.4 billion shillings to finance development activities in the district.
However, in the new financial year, the proposed budget dropped from 34.4 billion shillings to 33.9 billion.
Simon Peter Oola, the Gulu District Vice Chairperson explained that the slight decrease in the annual budget is due to a drop in funding from central government.
Oola said government has cut funding under Discretionary Development Equalization Grant (DDEG) by 507 Million.
According to Oola, government will in the coming financial year release only 933.8 Million.
This current financial year, government released 1.155 billion shillings under the Discretionary Development Equalization Grant (DDEG).
In the next financial year, central government is expected to fund 94.2 percent of the budget which translates into 31.594 billion shilling.
Meanwhile the district projects to generate 1.294 billion shillings in local revenue.
The most affected sectors by the budget cut are; Health, community- based services, natural resources, education, road and engineering, water and internal audit.
But funding for administration increased from 8.70 billion to 9.2 billion.
Finance department also saw an increased in funding from 243. 7 million this financial year to 457. 4 million in the next financial year.
