ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This first Municipal Council profile provides a snapshot for directing all the interventions in the council. It was developed in a very consultative and participatory manner where all the relevant stakeholders were involved. The data were collected from the head of departments and from the four divisions of the Municipality.

I wish to acknowledge with great pleasure, the various actors and institutions for their tremendous inputs in the formulation of this profile. I am highly indebted to the various departments that provided sector-specific issues that formed the basis of this profile.

In a special way, I am indebted to UAAU, Municipal Planning Unit for their technical support and guidance which facilitated the formulation and production of this profile.

Last but not least, I acknowledge the contributions of theTechnical Planning Committee of the MunicipalCouncil for their scrutiny and the final input of the profile.

Finally, I appeal to all the stakeholders including our development partners, civil society organizations, the private sector, well-wishers and the entire public to support the process of supporting us in our areas of interest using the various means available so that together we achieve our long term goal of improved service delivery to the people.

TUMUSIIME LEONARD

 TOWN CLERK/APAC MUNICIPALCOUNCIL

 

1.0 GENERAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Name of the Council.

Apac municipal came into operation on 1^stJuly 2016 and derived its name from Apac Town Council whose origin can be traced back from the history of Apac District.The district started through the efforts of the Locals, with the advent of Colonial Administration in Northern Uganda during the first quarter of the 20^th Century.Following Administrative re-organization in 1974, Apac was made the District Head quarter of Western Lango District and was declared a planning area.Apac Town Council which was in Apac Sub County was then selected to be the Headquarter of Apac District. Basing on the central government move to create more Municipalities, strong lobbying by the leaders and the fact that it had remained in the same status for over 30 years, Apac Town Council was then elevated into Apac Municipal Council.

1.2 Geographical Location and Size of Apac Municipal

Apac Municipality is situated in the Northern part of Uganda between longitudes 32^oWest and 34^o East and latitudes 1.59^o North and 3^o South. It is approximately 280 km (direct) from Kampala via Masindi Port. It is bordered by Apac Sub County to the East South and West, Chegere Sub County to the North and Ibuje Sub county to the North West. Administratively, the municipality is divided into four divisions, 20 wards and 97 cells/villages as in the table below:-

Table 1: Administrative composition of Apac Municipal Council

DIVISION	WARD	CELL
AGULU	5	26
AKERE	4	22
AROCHA	7	32
ATIK	4	17
TOTAL	20	97

Source: Raw Data from Planning Unit Apac Municipal Council

1.3 Demographic information.

According to the 2014 population and Housing Census, Apac Municipal Council had a population of 50,962 with 26,014 females and24,678 males. The population as per the divisions stands as below:

Table 2: Demographic composition ofApac Municipal Council

Division	No. of households	Male	Female	Total
Agulu	2,609	6,757	7,132	13,889
Akere	2,428	7,060	7,582	14,642
Arocha	2,134	5,257	5,489	10,746
Atik	2,006	5,604	5,811	11,415
Total	9,177	24,678	26,014	50,692

Source: UBOS

The population growthas per original Apac Town Council is as below:

Table 3: Demographic Information of Apac Municipal for the last three years

Year	1991	2002	2009 projected	2014
No. of people	7,216	10,137	12,500	50,692

Source: UBOS

The erratic increase has been attributed to the extension of the Town boundary. 

1.4 Brief on the characteristics of the hinterlands.

The Municipality covers a total area of approximately 231.41 km² of which 7%.is under permanent Arocha wetland. Apac Municipal land generally stands at 3.540ft above sea level. The surrounding is the Northern Ugandan plateau consisting mainly of undulating flat land surfaces separated by wide permanent or seasonal swamps. The whole of Apac Municipal is drained by Arocha swamp flowing westwards into river Nile.

The Natural vegetation of Apac Municipal and its immediate surroundings is moist cumbersome savannah mainly with scattered shrubs in the grassland, although some woodland also exists.

1.5 Physical address (Street, Plot No.)

Apac municipal council offices is located in Biashara cell, central ward, Akere division, plot number 18 and 19, Apac-Akokoro Road

1.6 Postal Address

The postal address of Apac municipal council is P.O Box 4 Apac

1.7 Telephones Lines, Fax and E-mail etc.

apacmunicipal@yahoo.com

2.0 ORGANISATIONAL SET UP

2.1 The Council and their Number

The council has 15 members (8 Males and 7 Females), 9 directly elected councillors, female and male youth representatives, male and female PWD representatives, female and male elderly representatives.

2.2 Council Composition

This council is composed of the main Council of 15 members directly elected by the voters. It is headed by the mayor as the political head. Deputy Mayor is the leader of the government business, the speaker and the deputy presides over the main council meetings.

2.3 The Committees

There are 4 committees of the council chaired by respective committee chairpersons.

1. Executives committee chaired by the Mayor. It has 4 members,
2. Business and welfare committee of 5 members chaired by the speaker.
3.  Production and marketing, Health, Education, community based services and Natural Resources. It has 5 members
4.  Administration, Finance and Planning, Works and Technical Services with 4 members.

2.4 Role and functions of Council and the various Committees

Role and functions of Council

• Approval of the annual budgets estimates and work plans.
• Approval of development plans and policies of council.
• Making by laws for the proper conduct of the council’s own business.
• Passing of bills and byelaws.
• Raising of loans and mortgaging council property

It should be noted that the above five functions according to the Local Government Act CAP 243, Fourth Schedule, cannot be delegated but can only be exercised by the council.

Other duties of councillors are:-

• Maintaining close contact with their electoral areas and consulting the people on issues to be discussed in council.
• Presenting people’s views, opinions and proposals to the council.
• Attending council sessions and committee meetings as policy makers.
• Reporting to the electorate the decisions of the council and actions taken to solve problems raised by residents in the electoral area for purposes of political accountability and transparency.
• Taking part in communal and development activities in their electoral area and municipal as a whole.

Note that electoral area for the special interest group is NOT the geographical areas but the people the representatives represent in the council.

Roles and functions of various committees

Executive committee

• Initiate and formulate policy for approval by the council
• Oversee the implementation of the government and council’s policies
• Monitor and coordinate activities of NGOs in the municipal.
• Monitor the implementation of the council’s programmes and take remedial action where necessary.
• Recommend to council persons to be appointed members of the DSC, local government public accounts committee, municipal contracts committee, area land committee or any other committee, boards and commissions.
• Receive and solve disputes forwarded to it from LLG councils.
• Consider and evaluate the performance of the council against the approved work plans and programmes at the end of each financial year.
• Carry out any other duty as may be authorized by the council or any law.

Standing committees

• Receive, discuss and recommend to the main council, reports of departments under their responsibility
• Receive budgets of departments under their responsibility and recommending for their integration into the council budget.
• Scrutinizing monthly expenditure returns, contracts committee reports and quarterly reports so as to recommend appropriate action by council.
• Monitoring and evaluating performance of sectors under their responsibility.

2.5 The political structure.

2.6 The Administrative/Management set up

The chief executive officer who is also an accounting officer and the administrative head (head of all the civil servants) is the Town Clerk assisted by the Deputy Town Clerk. At the division levels, the four divisions are headed by the division senior assistant Town Clerks. The chief executive officer is responsible for all the Head of Departments accountable to him. The management set up summarized in the organogram below.

2.7 Size of civil service.

The size of civil service of the council is determined by the number of staff in the departments and sectors/units in the department. In general, Apac Municipal Council has a total of 404 staff

The details are as in the table below:

Table 4: The size of the civil service of Apac Municipal Council

SNO	Department	Number of staff
1	Administration	39
	Town Clerk	1
	Deputy Town Clerk	0
	Senior Assistant Town Clerk	4
	Human Resource Officers	2
	Law Enforcement Officers	12
	Town Agents	9
	Office Attendants	2
	Office typists	1
	Pool stenographers	1
	Stenographer Secretary	1
	Personal Secretary	1
	Records Officer	1
	Askari	3
	Information Technology Officer	1
2	Finance	10
	Principal Treasurer	1
	Senior Finance Officer	1
	Finance Officer	0
	Accountant	1
	Senior Account Assistant	1
	Division Treasurers	2
	Assistant Treasurers	3
	Inventory Management Officer	1
3	Health	16
	Principal Medical Officer	1
	Principal Health Inspector	1
	Health Educator	1
	Health Inspectors	1
	Enrolled Nurse	1
	Enrolled mid wife	1
	Health Assistants	5
	Nursing Assistants	2
	Porters	2
	Askari	1
4	Production and Marketing	2
	Agricultural Officer	1
	Commercial Officer	1
5	Education	324
	Principal Education Officer	1
	Inspector of Schools	1
	Education Officer Guidance and Counselling	1
	Primary School Teachers	224
	Secondary School Teachers	59
	Technical school Teachers	22
	Support Staffs in Schools	13
6	Roads and Engineering	6
	Supretendantof Works (Civil Engineer)	1
	Engineering Assistant	1
	Drivers	3
	Plant Attendant	1
7	Natural Resources	3
	Physical Planner	1
	Environment officer	1
	Land Supervisor	1
8	Community Development	4
	Principal Community Development Officer	1
	Community Development officer	3
9	Planning	1
	Planner	1
10	Internal Audit	2
	Senior Internal Auditor	1
	Internal Auditor	1

Source: Human Resource Data, Apac Municipal Council

2.8 Relationship between the political and administrative organs.

Whereas the mayor is the political head of the council, the town clerk heads the civil service and reports to the mayor.

Each head of department reports to the council through various committees they belong to. For example, in the committee of Production and marketing, Health, Education, community based services, the head of production and marketing, health and environment, Municipal Education Officer, Principal Community development officer have to give reports to this committee.

Administration, Finance and Planning, Works and Technical Services committee, receives and discuss reports from Head of finance, deputy town clerk, Human Resource, Internal Audit, Planner, Engineer etc. These reports are then presented to the main council for debate and resolutions.

3.0 MISSION STATEMENT

 “To serve the community through a coordinated delivery of services which focus on national and local priorities and promote the sustainable social and economic development of the Council”

3.1 APAC MUNICIPAL COUNCIL VISION

“A healthy prosperous society that is socially and economically independent by 2040”

4.0 SOURCES OF REVENUE

Sources of revenues are majorly four;

Local Revenues, Discretionary Government transfers, Conditional Government Transfers and Other Government Transfers.

The major sources of local revenues includes among others:- Local Service Tax, Market/Gate charges, Application fee, Business licenses, Group registration, Inspection fees, Land Fees Sale of land Park Fees, Ground rent, Advertisement/Billboards. Property rates will be introduced in the coming financial year.

Transfers from the central Government is of two types; Discretionary and Conditional.

Discretionary government transfers includes urban unconditional grant (Wage), Urban Unconditional Grant (Non-Wage) and Urban Discretionary Development Equalization Grant.

Conditional government transfers includes Conditional Development Grant, Transitional Development grant, Sector conditional grant wage and sector conditional grant non-wage.

Other government transfers includes money for UWEP, YLP and other monies lobbied from the government.

Municipal being new has not been able to attract donors but is working with other development partners like the GIZ, International Life line funds.

5.0 BUDGET (RECURRENT AND CAPITAL)

Since the municipality started operation from 1^st July 2016, it begun a zero based budgeting system of3,312,545,000= However, the budget for the former town council for the last three financial years stand as follows

Table 5:Revenues of Apac Municipal for the last three years

SOURCE	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016
LOCAL REVENUE
Local Hotel Tax	206,500	46,000	933,000
Land Fees	6,792,500	12,945,000	4,060,000
Business License	22,785,000	16,135,244	23,979,512
Other License	550,000	940,000	50,000
Local Service Tax	3,146,250	12,970,700	4,296,250
Rent and Rates	2,707,500	9,392,500	156,000
Registration of Birth	645,000	525,000	835,000
Sales of Assets	–	20,000,000	150,000
Advertising	1,590,000	1,155,000	515,000
Park Fees	8,014,504	2,400,000	7,800,000
Registration of Business	720,000	100,000	650,000
Inspection Fees	380,000	300,000	450,000
Market and Gate Charges	18,502,000	33,560,000	24,796,700
Other Fees and Charges	304,000	596,000	2,319,700
SUB TOTAL	66,343,254	111,065,444	70,991,162
GRANTS
Unconditional Grant	203,414,593	215,348,344	262,202,155
LGMSDP	10,767,671	13,300,765	13,789,888
Road Fund	83,748,637	64,486,451	103,115,817
PRDP/ Maruzi Seed School	51,646,642	–	52,016,706
NAADS	58,777,772	70,276,746	–
NUSAFII	500,000	–	–
Equalisation	10,000,000	–	–
CDD	10,000,000	8,000,000	4,000,000
SUB TOTAL	428,855,315	371,412,306	435,124,566
ANNUAL TOTAL	495,198,569	482,477,750	506,115,728

Source: Municipal Final Accounts

Table 6: Resource Allocation to Sectors

SECTOR	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016
Management Support Services	117,624,264	141,459,461	318,777,362
Finance and Planning	87,145,337	51,856,643	28,205,025
Statutory Bodies	23,466,720	31,674,500	30,739,500
Production and Marketing	70,001,078	20,865,500	0
Health and Environment	9,930,600	23,782,000	28,043,829
Education and Sports	26,437,008	132,325,632	0
Works and Technical Services	127,039,805	73,282,048	90,510,001
Gender and Comm. Based Services	20,808,356	18,295,022	5,298,001
Internal Audits	12,745,401	15,469,456	4,542,010
TOTAL	495,198,569	509,010,262	506,115,728

Source: Municipal Final Accounts

For the current financial year 2016/17, the budget is as in the table below:

Table 7: The budget of Apac Municipal for the current Financial Year

S/N	Revenues	Approved Budget 2016/17
1	Locally Raised Revenues	120,000,000=
2	Discretionary Government Transfers	654,209,000=
3	Conditional Government Transfers	2,248,291,000=
4	Other Government Transfers	289,945,000=
5	Donor Funding	–
	Total Revenues	3,312,545,000=
	Expenditures
1	Administration	384,209,000=
2	Finance	69,021,000=
3	Statutory Bodies	74,235,000=
4	Production and Marketing	92,092,000=
5	Health	183,574,000=
6	Education	1,833,484,000=
7a	Roads and Engineering	276,699,000=
7b	Water	5,515,000=
8	Natural Resources	45,648,000=
9	Community Based Services	277,841,000=
10	Planning	34,260,000=
11	Internal Audit	35,708,000=
	Total Expenditures	3,312,545,000=

Percentage Contribution of the following revenue sources to 2016/17 FY budget:-

Localrevenues                                          3.6

Discretionary government transfers           19.7

Conditional government transfers               67.9

Other government transfers                          8.8

6.0 INFRASTRUCTURE

6.1 Roads

The main truck road is the Lira- Akokoro road, which runs approximately 14.9 kilometres in length and Apac-Teboke Road about 7.36 Kms. There are 88.25 km of urban roads and 112.66 km of community access roads within the municipal boundary.

Table 8: Road categories by length

Category of Roads	Road Length in km
Classified/ Trunk Roads	22.26
Feeder roads	88.25
Community access roads	112.66
Tarmac	6.3
Total	229.47

Source: Municipal Engineering Department

Table 9:Road Networks by Division

	AROCHA DIVISION	Earth Length(KM)	Total Length(KM)	Division/Location	Conditions
	Road Name
1	Bama A-Acekene	3.14	3.14	Arocha	All weather road
2	Awiri dip road	3.29	3.29	Arocha	seasonal road
3	Acekene-Along	1.55	1.55	Arocha	seasonal road
4	Acekene-Alari	1	1	Arocha	seasonal road
5	Abeibuti-Abulumogo	1.95	1.95	Arocha	seasonal road
6	Awir p/s-Aporotuku	1.6	1.6	Arocha	seasonal road
7	Acekene-Atek	1.72	1.72	Arocha	seasonal road
8	Awiri Dip-Abeibuti	2.57	2.57	Arocha	seasonal road
9	Atopi TC-Arocha	2.73	2.73	Arocha	seasonal road
10	Atopi Ps- Arocha	2.47	2.47	Arocha	seasonal road
	Total Arocha Division	22.02	22.02		seasonal road
	ATIK DIVISION
11	Witim A-Bardek B	1.72	1.72	Atik	seasonal road
12	Bardek B- Anganuti	2.71	2.71	Atik	seasonal road
13	Bama A-Bardek B CoU	4.41	4.41	Atik	seasonal road
14	Bardek B-Angeki	3.08	3.08	Atik	seasonal road
15	Bardek B-Ibalikoma	2.95	2.95	Atik	seasonal road
16	Witim A-Ibalikoma	2.31	2.31	Atik	seasonal road
Total Atik Division	17.18	17.18		seasonal road
	AKERE DIVISION
17	Teibu-Angayiki-Akuli swamp	5	5	Akere	seasonal road
18	Angayiki B Aminteng	4.82	4.82	Akere	seasonal road
19	Alyec TC -Anyai	4.3	4.3	Akere	seasonal road
20	Anyai A-Angayiki B	3.9	3.9	Akere	seasonal road
21	Alyec TC-Angayiki ps	2.32	2.32	Akere	seasonal road
Total AKere Division	20.34	20.34
	AGULU DIVISION
22	Omukuwie-Ayegero	7.1	7.1	Agulu	seasonal road
23	Malaba-Abarle-Awir	3.51	3.51	Agulu	seasonal road
24	Barowelo-Ayomjeri	7.27	7.27	Agulu	seasonal road
25	Alwang A-Angu	3.96	3.96	Agulu	seasonal road
26	Atudu p/s-Teibu	7.4	7.4	Agulu	seasonal road
27	Aminteng-Ogei-Obani	7.96	7.96	Agulu	seasonal road
28	Okiilera-Olili	3.89	3.89	Agulu	seasonal road
29	Obani-Atudu p/s	5.79	5.79	Agulu	seasonal road
30	Teibu-Acutayiki-Okiilera	4.11	4.11	Agulu	seasonal road
31	AcutAyiki-Agulu	2.13	2.13	Agulu	seasonal road
	Total Agulu Division	53.12	53.12	Agulu	seasonal road
	TOTAL LENGTH OF NET WORK	112.66	112.66

Source: Municipal Engineering Department

6.2 Educational Institutions

 Pre-primary

Private Nursery Schools                                                     11

 Primary

Government Grant Aided Primary Schools                     12

Private Primary Schools                                                     16

 Secondary

Government Grant Aided Secondary Schools 2

Private Secondary Schools                                                 3

 Technical/Polytechnic

Government Technical Institutions                                  1

Private Technical/Vocational Institutions                       10

 Universities

Private Higher Institution of Learning                             3

6.3 Health facilities

 Hospitals

Apac Municipal Council has one main hospital managed by Apac District Local Government

 Health Centres

There is one health centre II called Biashara, managed by the Municipal Council, the health centre is located in Biashara, Central Ward, Akere Division.

 Dispensaries

No government dispensaries exist in Apac Municipal Council,however, there are 05 private health clinics, 48 drug shops, 3 private Laboratory and one reproductive Health Unit (Reproductive Health Uganda). All providing health services and managing the various sickness to the community and other health related conditions e.g. HIV/AIDS testing and counselling, testing for cervical cancer to women and family planning etc.

6.4 Water and Sewerage

Water supply to the Town

The safe water coverage is at 78 percent. Apac municipal Council still has inadequate water point sources. Unsafe water sources like water ponds and swamps are sometimes used, basically during the wet season. Despite water supply system by National water and Sewerage Corporation which supply approximately 30% of the town, few boreholes exist at the outskirts each water point serving more than 400 people.

 Solid waste and sewerage management system

Refuse management at household level and public place is at 60%. The most abused disposal is that of polythene papers.

The municipal council does not have sewerage system at the moment despite the presence of National Water and Sewerage Corporation in town, however, there is a proposed plan for the construction of a faecal-sludge drying bed at Aminteng cell, Aminteng ward, Agulu Division.

6.5 Power and Lighting

The national grid line passes through the Town (UMEME) and the communities in the Municipality are utilizing the services. There are 14 transformers currently supplying power in the four division Approximately 23% are connected to Hydro power, 9% are using solar power for lighting, 3% used Gas as source of power, 7% use thermal power, while 62% uses, wood fuel.

6.6 Postal and Telecommunication facilities

The nearby postal service available is the Uganda postal service. However there are counter services available in towns which are commonly courier and quick service.

There are four mobile phone networks, which can be picked in most parts of the Town. These are MTN, AIRTEL/WARID, MANGO / UTL and AFRICEL networks. Internet services exist in government, NGO offices and private internet cafes.

The television services can be picked from DSTV, Go TV, AZAM TV, STAR TV which can be access through the service providers However, TV Waa and UBC Can be picked through a buster station located at Odokomit. Their access is very low within Apac Municipality.

7.0 NATURAL RESOURCE ENDOWMENTS

Apac Municipal Council is not endowed with rich biodiversity in terms of natural resources.The existing natural resources in the Municipal Council are.

7.1 Water bodies

The Municipal Council has fresh water bodies (Arocha stream), wetland (permanent and seasonal), fertile soils and generally reliable bimodal rainfall regime. Most of the Municipal council’s biodiversity is on private land.

In Apac Municipality, wetland resources include flora e.g. papyrus and other natural trees species, fauna e.g. water buck and sitatunga,  fish e.g. cut fish, lung fish, tilapia and clarius, birds such as African jacana, ducks, cranes, storks and herons.  Fishing for domestic consumption is a common activity along this wetland.  The Municipality has 7% of its total area under wetland. There is evidence that at least some percentage of the total wetlands area have been reclaimed and converted to various forms of land use i.e. farm land, residential and business areas

7.2 Forests

Apac Municipality has a total of 220 hectares of gazetted forest reserve under National Forestry Authority and the rest of the available forests are on privately owned land.

A significant portion of these reserves were degraded especially those under National Forest Authority. As a remedy to this problem, the Government of Uganda in collaboration with National Forestry Authority and Apac District Forestry service is promoting tree planting under the National community Tree Planting Programme in order to restore the tree cover. Under this National Community Tree Planting Programmes, the district received approximately 30,000 free seedlings which were also given to individual farmers and institutions within Apac Municipal Council.

Besides the publicly managed forest reserve, there is a growing number of private owned plantation forests in the Municipality. This is an indicator that tree growing is becoming a more attractive venture to small- medium- scale investors.

8.0 TRADE AND COMMERCE

Briefly the major activities of trade and Commerce in the Town among others includes the following:

Retail and whole sale business with range of retail shops and mini supermarkets, hardware, spare parts for vehicles and motorcycles, garages etc.

Transport trade. There are two buses that travels to Kampala daily from Apac Municipal council, taxis operates on Lira route and boda bodas of motorcycles and bicycles serving short and sometimes long distances connection.

Hotels, restaurants and hospitality business including bars and lodgings.

Carpentry for beds, chairs, tables and frames, metal fabrications, welding plants.

Produce buying and selling.

Radio and telecommunication business. Two radio stations of frequency modulations exist in the municipality in the name of 90.6 FM radio Devine and 92.9 FM radio Apac. There are numerous telecommunication shops that operates airtime and phone selling, mobile money points.

Repairs services are provided in town. There is repairs of radios, watches, TV and other electronics, shoe repairs etc.

Other trade activities includes entertainment business such as advertisements, song launching, disco etc., tailoring, banking services (two banks exist i.e. centenary and stanbic bank, hair dressing and shaving saloons. Private schools, clinics and drug shops etc.

9.0 INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES

Only light industrial activities is common in town. This includes maize milling, simsim and Cassava grinding, groundnuts hauling, tailoring, printing and fabrication work,

10.0 SOCIAL AMENITIES

Apac Municipal has an open land for the mayor’s gardens and the boma ground.

Plans is under way for the acquisition of land for the stadium.

11.0 TOURIST ATTRACTION

Apac Municipal has no environmental attributes of economic significance to attract tourist activities, apart from the footprints of Olum commonly known as “Tyen Olum” on Ibuje hills which is 13 KM from the town. There are no game reserves, sanctuaries, and game parks in the municipality. However “TyenOlum”, the grave of the former president that lies astride the beautiful scenery of the Nile, the archaeological and historical sites, middle and later Stone Age sites (dated 50,000BC to AD 1000) found at Ibuje and Akokoro, another historical site cited in 1862 found extreme southwest of Maruzi County at Bukungu, forts (monuments) established prior to 1890 by the Anglo Egyptian administration while attempting to occupy Uganda and others were established thereafter at the border near Katuba during 1890-1905 period, the Maruzi peninsula in the western part of the district, adjacent to the Murchison Falls National Park densely populated with wildlife putsApac municipal strategically placed to provide habitat for tourists wishing to see all the cited tourist sites.

With the hope of tarmacking RwekunyeKungu-Apac-Lira-Acholibur and Kitgum road, the tourist industry of the municipal will be boosted further since the municipality provides the linkage to these terminals.

12.0 ACHIEVEMENTS OF COUNCIL IN HER ENDEVOURS TO DEVELOP FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS.

• Opening up four divisions and functional division offices
• Setting fully functional education, production and Natural resources department.
• Recruitment of staff to fill critical positions.
• Renovation of the old building at the municipal headquarters to provide more offices
• Purchased land for markets and division offices.

13.0 CHALLENGES/CONSTRAINTS FACING COUNCIL

 The most challenging problem is low revenue base to match demand for services.

 Citizen’s participation in the implementation of development projects and sustainability of those projects is still a big challenge and yet a number of projects have been implemented to improve the living condition of the citizens in various communities

 Lack of approved physical development plan

 there are still some staffing gap.

 Inadequate equipment.

 Loopholes/weaknesses of certain laws and policies

Inadequate funding to support council activates (20% of the local revenue is so small)

Inadequate networking and lobbying capacity

Political interference in implementation of programs

Lengthy procedures in approval of bye-laws.

Inadequate office space.

14.0 COUNCIL’S DEVELOPMENT PLANS

ApacMunicipal council developed its Development plan and submitted it to National Planning Authority for their comments and corrections.

The five year development plan is composed of seven chapters namely:

Chapter one gives the general background of the municipality including description of the past and present development context and  strategies; description of the planning process; the structure of the development plan; the municipal profile; key geographical information; administrative structure; demographic characteristics; natural endowments and social – economic infrastructure,

Chapter two: Looks at the situation analysis including review of sector development; analysis of the state of cross cutting issues; analysis of potentials, opportunities, constraints and challenges; analysis of urban development issues and standard development indicators.

Chapter Three : Explains the Local development strategic direction and plan including adoption of broad national strategic directions and priorities; sector specific direction and priorities; relevant National cross cutting policies /programmes; broad local government development plan/goal and outcomes; sector specific objectives, out puts, strategies and interventions; and summary of sectoral programs and projects.

Chapter four: Entails the LGDP implementation, coordination and partnership frame work including LGDP implementation and coordination strategy; LGDP institutional arrangements; LGDP integration and partnership arrangements; prerequisites of LGDP implementation; overview of development resources by source; programs, year’s budgets and sourceoffunding.

Chapter five: Looks at resource mobilization strategy.

Chapter six: Gives an overview of monitoring and evaluation strategy including monitoring and evaluation matrix; LGDP monitoring and evaluation arrangements; LGDP progress reporting: joint annual review of LGDP; LGDP midterm evaluation; LGDP end of term evaluation; and LGDP communication and feedback strategy.

Chapter seven: Gives the details of project profiles. 

15.0 AREAS OF INTEREST

• Partnering with the ministry of lands housing and urban development to come up with the physical plans of the municipality.
• Sourcing Development partners, NGOs, CBOs, civil society organizations and other multinational development actorse.g. GIZ in developing sanitation infrastructures such as sludge drying beds to improve town sanitation.
• Expansion of the revenue base through creation/identification of new revenue sources.
• Seeking partnership with other developed urban councils.
• Stimulating LED through attracting local private and foreign investors by giving land for development and tax holidays.
• Improvement of town sanitation and hygiene practices all divisions.
• Partnering with multinational development actors e.g. GIZ to develop sanitation infrastructures such as sludge drying beds to improve town sanitation.
• Acquiring more land for development, recreational activities and sportse.g. stadium.
• Extension of national grid to all divisions and street lights.

16.0 CONCLUSION

Since the profile is providing a snap short of up to date status of the municipality, the mayor issues covered under its various sections includes the following:

Section one provided the general background of the Municipality including the name geographical location and size, demographic information, characteristics of the hinterland and physical address.

Section two summarizes the organizational set up of the municipal. This briefly stated the composition of the council, the administrative and political structure of the municipal, and the relationship between administrative and political set up of the Apac municipal council.

Section three looks at the strategic direction (Mission statement) of the municipal council.

Section four briefly talks about revenues of the municipal for the last three years.

Section five extended section four in looking at the budget of the council.

Section six summarizes the infrastructures of the municipal council including roads, schools, health, water, energy and telecommunications.

Section seven summarizes natural resources including water bodies and forests.

Section eight looks at trade and commerce activities in the town.

Section nine is about industrial activities of the municipal council.

Section ten talks about social amenities.

Section eleven summarizes tourist industry.

Section twelve talks about achievement of the council.

Section thirteen looks at the challenges/constraints facing the council

Section fourteen looks at the development plan of the council and

Section fifteen looks the areas of interest.