Soroti City Clerk Calls for More Funding, Health Workers, and Road Equipment to Improve Service Delivery.

By Peterson Hiirya.

– Soroti City Clerk Paul Batanda has outlined critical challenges affecting service delivery in the city, including inadequate health staffing, lack of road construction equipment, insufficient funding, and gaps in waste management, while responding to issues raised during a joint political and technical leaders’ meeting held at Soroti City headquarters.

Addressing city leaders, Batanda said the city had registered significant progress in local revenue collection, surpassing the Shs2 billion mark for the first time.

“When we came in the financial year 2024/2025, we had not hit Shs2 billion in local revenue. In the current financial year, we crossed that mark and are now around Shs2.5 billion,” Batanda said.

He attributed the improvement to tighter revenue management measures and the elimination of loopholes that previously affected collections.

According to the city clerk, Soroti City has stopped the practice of renegotiating revenue collection contracts after they have been awarded, a move that has strengthened accountability among contractors.

“In the past, some contractors would seek reductions in their contractual obligations after securing revenue collection tenders. We have stopped that practice. If one fails, we hand over the responsibility to another collector,” he explained.

Despite the gains, Batanda noted that the city still has substantial untapped revenue potential and called for a change in mindset among both staff and service providers to maximize collections.

Health Sector Facing Critical Staffing Gaps
Batanda described the shortage of health workers as one of the city’s most pressing challenges.

He revealed that Soroti City requires an additional wage bill of more than Shs2.1 billion to recruit 97 critical health workers, including midwives and nursing officers.

The city would require approximately Shs3.9 billion to fully recruit and deploy 169 health workers under the approved staffing structure.

“We are operating far below the required staffing levels. In some critical cadres such as midwives and nursing officers, staffing is below 45 percent,” Batanda said.

He warned that the shortage directly affects service delivery, particularly maternal healthcare, as mothers often fail to access timely medical services due to inadequate staffing.

The city has already petitioned the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance to increase the wage bill allocation, he added.

Accommodation Challenges Affecting Service Delivery.

The city clerk also highlighted the lack of staff accommodation at health facilities and schools.

According to Batanda, health workers who reside far from their duty stations are unable to provide round-the-clock services.

“If staff accommodation is available at health centres, health workers can remain on site and offer services throughout the day and night,” he noted.

He similarly called for the construction of teachers’ houses to improve performance and retention, particularly in schools where teachers travel long distances to work.

Lack of Road Equipment Slowing.

Infrastructure Development
Batanda expressed concern that Soroti City remains among the few local governments that have not received government-funded road construction machinery since becoming a city in 2020.

While districts received road units including graders, wheel loaders and other machinery through the Ministry of Works, Soroti City continues to rely on borrowed equipment and hired machinery.

“Since the city started functioning in 2020, we have not received road equipment. Yet we are expected to perform at the same level as districts that have full road units,” he said.

He explained that borrowing machinery from neighbouring districts often causes delays because those districts also have their own road maintenance schedules.

Batanda urged political leaders to lobby central government to provide the city with road equipment to reduce expenditure on hiring and improve road maintenance.

Fruit Factory Must Benefit Local Farmers
The city clerk also raised concerns about challenges facing local farmers supplying produce to the Teso Fruit Factory.

He said factory operators currently prefer seedless oranges and fibre-free mangoes, leaving many local farmers unable to access the market because they grow indigenous varieties.

“The intention of value addition was to benefit local farmers. If fruits are sourced from outside Soroti because local varieties cannot be processed, then our people are not benefiting as intended,” Batanda observed.

He called for engagement with stakeholders to explore upgrading processing equipment so that all local fruit varieties can be accepted.

City Missed Opportunity for Garbage Trucks
On waste management, Batanda revealed that Soroti City missed an opportunity to acquire two garbage trucks under a World Bank-supported urban development programme after rejecting the offer during implementation.

He noted that the city is currently relying on aging garbage trucks that were supplied by NEMA more than a decade ago and are increasingly breaking down.

“Garbage trucks are very expensive, costing hundreds of millions of shillings. Missing that opportunity has affected waste collection operations,” he said.

He called for renewed efforts to lobby development partners and government agencies for replacement trucks.

Call for Increased Funding
Batanda concluded by urging leaders to unite in advocating for increased funding to Soroti City, noting that the city’s budget remains among the lowest compared to other urban authorities.

He pointed to examples of municipalities and cities that receive billions of shillings in additional grants and development funding, arguing that Soroti requires similar support to address its growing infrastructure and service delivery needs.

“With strategic engagement and strong leadership, Soroti City can attract more funding and improve service delivery for our people,” he said.

The joint meeting brought together political and technical leaders from Soroti City and its divisions to review service delivery challenges and explore solutions for accelerating development across the city.