By DALCY LULUA
MINISTER for Administrative Matters, Hon Richard Masere, clarified in an interview that all the funding for the national census has been dispatched to all provinces, including the National Capital District.
These funds are managed by provincial census coordinators.
Responding to complaints from enumerators about not receiving their allowances, Minister Masere explained: “What’s happening here is that the enumerators are facing some administrative issues. Many of the temporary data collectors engaged in this program don’t have bank accounts.”
“All the funds are not held by the national census office but are in a trust account managed by the Department of Finance, and those funds have been dispersed.”
He highlighted that these issues are affecting the Finance Department’s ability to transfer funds.
“When transferring funds to the accounts, those funds are not getting into the accounts because either there are no existing accounts or the accounts have closed because they’re non-operational.”
Minister Masere assured all enumerators across the country that the government has fully funded this national event.
“Everything that we’re doing is planned and structured. We’ve already got the money; it’s with Finance, and you will be paid. But if you haven’t provided your correct banking details, then it’s causing an issue for everybody else because when they make a batch payment, everybody has to be paid.”
He emphasized that the funds are being directly transferred from the Finance Department to individual bank accounts, and enumerators will receive their allowances.
“We are in the process of discussing the last load of funding, which is around K30 million for all the provinces. But before we send the money out, based on feedback from the Department of Finance, most of the funding dispersed in the provinces hasn’t been drawn down yet or committed.”
Minister Masere urged the provincial coordinators to draw down these funds so that the next lot of funds could be dispersed.
“We just want to encourage our enumerators. Under my leadership, providing ministerial guidance on this system, we ensured that the national government gave us the money, and then we started the center. We didn’t do anything on an ad hoc basis.”
He addressed misinformation circulating about the availability of funds, calling it a lie propagated by opposition groups trying to cause instability.
“I want people to know that funding has already been made. They just need to liaise with the provincial coordinators to make sure that the details they need to provide are correct, and then the money will be paid directly from the Finance Department into their respective accounts.”
