The President emphasised the need to ensure that economic growth translates into improved household incomes, citing government programmes such as Operation Wealth Creation and the Parish Development Model (PDM).
“Can you have a strong army and a strong and safe country without a strong economy? Can you have a strong defence force and a strong and safe country without cohesive politics? Finally, can you have a strong defence force and a strong and safe country without, in some cases, addressing the issue of geo-strategic location such as being landlocked?” President Museveni asked.
The ministers’ “Expose and Fight Corrupt Officials in Local Governments” campaign has taken the fight to different districts, where officials have been questioned over issues such as misuse of public resources, abandoned projects, revenue leakages and poor service delivery.
“We are not going to allow a poor-performing CAO to remain a CAO. Monitoring and evaluation is one key component we shall work on,” the minister noted.
The State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs, Balaam Barugahara, committed to engaging the government to have all the political prisoners released, and last week, 18 of them, including Olivia Lutaaya, pleaded guilty and are yet to serve a light sentence of four months and then after will be released after spending over four years in prison.
The State Minister for Gender, Labour, and Social Development in charge of Children and Youth Affairs, Balaam Barugahara, has said that rapists and defilers should never be given bail once arrested.