The Secretary in the Office of the President, Hajji Yunus Kakande, has warned Resident District Commissioners (RDCs), Resident City Commissioners (RCCs), and internal security coordinators against waiting for line ministers to tour their jurisdictions before identifying and addressing failures in public service delivery.
Opening a three-day regional capacity-building workshop in Masaka City on Monday, September 28, 2026, Kakande stressed that district commissioners must maintain rigorous, round-the-clock surveillance over public funds, state contracts, and government installations.
The engagement brought together RDCs, RCCs, deputies, assistants, Regional Internal Security Officers (RISOs), and District Internal Security Officers (DISOs) drawn from across the Greater Masaka sub-region.
“Please, when you are carrying out this role of inspection, don’t leave any stone unturned. Don’t wait for ministers to first come to your areas and you start reacting. Be proactive,” Kakande said, reminding participants that the government has adopted a strict hakuna muchezo (no-nonsense) doctrine where superficial reporting and shoddy project execution will not be tolerated.
The directive comes amid an aggressive nationwide oversight drive spearheaded by Local Government Minister Balaam Barugahara through his "Expose the Corrupt" campaign, which has exposed widespread procurement anomalies, ghost payroll entries, inflated school enrollment figures, and diversions within the Parish Development Model (PDM) across several local governments.
Kakande told the Greater Masaka administrative and security corps that they must act as the primary line of detection for any public sector malpractice.
Addressing PDM governance, Kakande issued a stern warning against RDCs and RCCs directly handling or supervising the physical disbursement of funds to beneficiaries. He emphasized that the constitutional and administrative remit of the presidency's representatives is strictly confined to independent oversight and ensuring funds reach designated subsistence households without illegal deductions.
On anti-corruption enforcement, Kakande advised the commissioners to base all punitive actions and public statements on thorough, evidence-based investigations rather than hearsay or unverified rumors, cautioning them not to damage public servants' reputations recklessly.
With recent electoral cycles concluded, Kakande urged the commissioners to pivot fully toward monitoring socio-economic transformation programs. He called on them to support local governments in tackling youth unemployment through vocational and agricultural skill-building in ICT, value addition, and tourism, while promoting modern irrigation technologies to counter dry spells.
He also tasked the administrators to intervene early and impartially in land disputes, safeguard gazetted public and institutional land from encroachment, and maintain collaborative, disciplined working relationships with elected district chairpersons and technical accounting officers.
The Head of the RDC Secretariat, Maj. Martha Asiimwe, noted that the three-day seminar was designed to sharpen the commissioners' leadership capabilities, institutional ethics, conflict management skills, and statutory oversight methods to ensure measurable accountability across local governments.
