The government runs short of money to construct district council offices

THE Government has admitted of having insufficient money with which to facilitate the construction of the headquarter buildings of the newly established district councils in the country, and instead workers of such district councils have been asked to bear the inconveniences caused while performing their diligent duties to the general public. The Deputy Minister for Local Government and Regional Administration Agrey Mwanri said in Parliament yesterday when responding a supplementary question asked by Dunstan .L. Kitandula (CCM-Mkinga) who wanted to know when the government will finish the construction of newly established district headquarters. Earlier the legislator had asked a question specifically targeting the slow pace of the construction of Mkinga district council headquarter offices, noting that, since its establishment the operations of the district council are temporarily taking place in Tanga city, a factor that causes congestion in office during operations. However, he further questioned that, since the establishment of the district council, their workers have been disturbed with lots of inconveniences while giving services to the needy people in the district. So he wanted to know also when the government would complete the construction of their workers houses. In answering such queries, the deputy minister noted that, the headquarter office for Mkinga district started in 2009 and was supposed to be completed in 2010 at a cost of Sh. 2.6 billion. He further noted that, the government was disbursing money for the construction of the building slowly by slowly depending on its availability according to the financial position an aspect that has caused the delay of the construction of a building. However, he noted that, due to this situation, the cost of building has been rising up to Sh. 4.2 billion and this has been necessitated by sudden increase of the building materials currently as the situation is in local market. He said up to December 2012, the government had already sent Sh. 3.2 for the sake of facilitating construction activity in the building, and for the 2013/14 financial year, the government has set aside Sh. 500 million for the building. Concerning with the workers’ houses, the government is putting the final touches to newly constructed five buildings designed in two in one which are able to accommodate ten families at a cost of Sh. 300 million. The government has already issued the whole amount and one building is complete while others are in the final touches. He said adding that, the district council is supposed to make sure that the construction of such buildings is finished on time. Either he said that, the construction of the office of the district council headquarter building will be completed according to the availability of the fund as per their allocation year after year. The move by the government is to ensure that, their workers leaves Tanga offices and move to a newly Mkinga district headquarters in future.