The role of information in accelerating accountability, service delivery,& quality resource allocation.

In Uganda the information Act empowers people to access information and can disseminate it provided it does not infringe with the law of the country. Most people do not have the habit of reading which makes them become uninformed and the fact that ‘information is power’, one may not articulate well any issue without clear information. Our people should be encouraged to read and access available information in order to contribute to improving service delivery, accountability, quality resource allocation, etc. These and more were words from Steven Ainganiza the Kabarole district information officer while discussing on the Access to information Act on 12^th October, 2016 during ToroDev’s weekly program ‘Manya Ekiragiro Kyawe’ that is aired live every Wednesday 8:00-10:00pm on KRC Fm, in fort portal.

‘’There are many avenues of accessing information i.e. district notice boards, sub county notice boards, internet, newspapers, radios, televisions, etc but some people do not care even when the information available is a public concern’’, said Steven Ainganiza the Kabarole district information officer.

Accessing information helps one to understand what is planned, how it is planned and the costs involved in the planning which information can be used while demanding for accountability especially from duty bearers. For example one may not know what is budgeted for under the health sector in his or her district without attending a district budget conference, listening to the news or getting information through other available avenues. Every sector be ministry or department in the district is supposed to show clearly the information of the department expenditures especially on financial matters but in most cases the information is never made available for public access or even when it is made available very few can take interest to access and follow it. Our people need to be encouraged regularly to develop positive attitude towards information access if we are to demand for accountability and improve the state of service delivery in the district, country & the world.

Every sector is supposed to show the money they always get and the expenditure of that money this helps people to account for the money they always allocate in different sectors but still few people look for information apart from the journalists and this has affected accountability and resource allocation.

During the 2 hours live radio discussion,Listeners were given chance to participate in the live talk show through call-ins & Sms; ‘’why can’t the district & sub counties have updated & regular information on their notice boards it is surprising some local government offices do not have these notice boards then how can the public access information? Asked Beatrice Makune a caller from Kyegegwa district,  ‘’local government offices are still weak in availing information to the public especially on what has been done, allocations in that sub county, purpose and what is proposed to be done yet it is something vital’’ said Frank Manyindo a caller from Kisomoro sub county in Kabarole district.

We are grateful to SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, CIPESA & all other development partners for the financial & technical support