By HOMELAND MEDIA TEAM
According to Rodgers Buregeya, the chairperson of the Masaka City Council finance committee, the regional police have been defaulting on rent for two and half years.
Uganda Police is supposed to pay Shs3.5m every month as rent fees to the city council which houses its offices on one of its buildings on Elgin Street.
“Police have not been paying us for all that period which made the money accumulate to Shs86m,” he told HOMELAND on Monday.
“So, Council last week resolved that the police clears this debt or be evicted from our building,” he added.
This publication understands that Council is considering increasing the rent fees for police from the current monthly Shs3.5m to at least Shs6m.
“My committee also resolved that rent fees police have been paying be revised upwards because the city has developed which has pushed rent fees of office space in the centre higher. The Shs3.5m they have been paying was set 15 years ago when Masaka was still a municipality,” Buregeya emphasized.
The Police regional office occupies the entire 3rd floor of the building.
Vincent Ssentogo, the chairperson social services in Masaka City Council and also a councilor representing persons with disabilities, said they have tasked the city clerk to present a report to council about the status of the police debt in one month for further action.
“Council is in dire need of money and we have in past asked several tenants to vacate after failing to pay rent fees, if police fails to honour their obligation, we shall have to vote that they also vacate our building and we get serious tenants that can promptly pay rent,” he remarked on Monday.
Asked to comment on the matter, Southern Regional Police Spokesperson Twaha Kasirye said “they are not aware that the Force owes council such an amount of money in rent arrears.”
“If they demand that money as they claim, let them write to us and we shall forward it to the right offices and their concerns will be addressed,” Kasirye told this publication.
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