By Emmanuel Omona PaOkech

Amuru district speaker, Christopher Odongkara has revealed that Amuru district Local Government has not conducted a full council meeting in four months despite repeated official invites to the councilors to attend the meeting.

According to the local government Act, the local government is supposed to conduct a full council meeting every after 2 months.

Odongkara argues that he called the councilors for a meeting on the 22nd of December 2012 but they did not turn up for the meeting.

Odongkara also maintained that again he called for a full council meeting on the 12th of January 2013  but the councilors did not appear for the meeting.

While in a interview with Uganda Picks ,Odongkara also explained that he has since been making calls to some of the councilors of Amuru district but they have neither answered nor called him back.

He noted that the councilors since last year are petitioning him saying that he is irrelevant and that he does not mind about the affairs of the district something he rubbished as not true.

Odongkara also added that he has been seeking help from the Ministry of Local government but since they have not responded to his plea.

Uganda Picks also interacted with Okello Tito, the youth Councilor for Amuru district who is in charge of Planning and finance who confirmed that they had petitioned the speaker for being incompetence last year.

Josephine Atim, the woman councilor 5 for Atiak Sub County who is also the secretary for Social Service Committee when contacted said that they made copies of their petitions to different authorities in Both Amuru and other places. Atim however did not want to explain much saying she was travelling from Atiak sub County to Gulu district.

Douglas Peter Okello, the chairperson for the Local Government in Uganda when contacted on the matter, blamed the Amuru District councilors for turning down their meetings.

Okello who is also the Gulu District local government speaker explained that it was the responsibility of the Speaker of the district together with the Executive committee to organize a council meeting where affirs of the district are discussed.

The Speaker also warned that in case Amuru district fails to sit for a council meeting for more than four  times and force  government  to penalize them , it may impact on Amuru district.