FY2019/20 BUDGET UPDATE: MOF VISITS GHETTO KIDS
By Mulengera Reporters
As part of the month-long FY2019/2020 budget-related activities, Directorate of Debt & Cash Policy Head Stella Marris Wanyera (who is one of the 3 Directors at Finance Ministry) led a large delegation to visit vulnerable children showing them love and inspiring hope in them.
The children, previously born to financially vulnerable parents living in Kampala’s poor neighborhoods (aka ghettoes) are being looked after at St. Teresa Babies Home located in Najjanankumbi Rubaga Division.
At the new Home, whose commencement the Ministry of Gender and KCCA authorized not very long ago, the Finance Ministry delegation brought lots of groceries for the 25 children the home has so far. They are all below 5 years.
Wanyera explained they chose this Babies Home and not any other because being new, they considered it best suited to pilot the Ministry’s CSR program with. She explained that the Finance Ministry has opted to undertake a range of deliberate outreach program activities aimed at demisitifying the myths the public could have had regarding the role of the Finance Ministry in service delivery.
She said to achieve inclusiveness and increased public participation in the way resources’ allocation decisions are taken, a decision was taken to re-align the way the Ministry works. And the responsibility to oversee that mindset change was tasked to her Directorate.
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She explained that under the “#DOINGMORE” initiative, the Finance Ministry seeks to rebrand and ensure the way the public views their role in service delivery changes. Mindset of the Finance Ministry employees must be changed so that they espouse values of public service excellence in all they do.
The new consensus at the Finance Ministry now is that this new culture and new way of doing things must first take root in the very influential Finance Ministry before it spreads to other government MDAs. The fact that it finances all service delivery programs in other MDAs gives the Finance Ministry leverage to easily influence mindset change in other Ministries.
Wanyera explains that the rebranding and re-positioning is aimed at doing things that will cause the public to appropriately perceive the Finance Ministry as a very “approachable, credible, consistent and responsive government entity” when it comes to addressing the needs of both internal and external stakeholders for inclusive growth.
To achieve this grand ambitious mission, a range of activities will be undertaken overtime (not just during the budget month).
And Wanyera enumerates these activities to include: image repositioning and a range of CSR outreaches to be undertaken by Ministry staff. That’s how St. Teresa Babies Home was chosen to benefit and apparenty, the last week visit by the Finance Ministry teams was just the beginning because Wanyera is looking foward to seeing the new “#DOINGMORE” initiative growing together with St. Teresa Babies Home.
The grateful officials at the Babies Home thanked the Finance Ministry employees saying the package of groceries they delivered would save what they would have spent feeding and maintaining the children for a period of not less than two weeks.
As the Finance Ministry teams departed, Wanyera led the children into a prayer thanking God for their lives. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
