President Yoweri Museveni’s anti-poverty tours in the country have revealed that the decentralisation system is facing many challenges. In many districts, chief administrative officers (CAOs) and officials of the National Agricultural Advisory Services have faced his wrath for failure to meet expectations. Below, Joshua Kato examines the progress of political and administrative decentralisation.

The decentralisation system was introduced in 1995 to improve efficiency in the delivery of services through devolution of power to lower administrative units. However, for the past 13 years, the system has faced several challenges, leading to questions as to whether it is meeting its objectives.

The recent recentralisation of the appointment of CAOs and town clerks, the restructuring of district tender boards and failure of local councils to account for funds, are all indicators of a system that is endangered.

Political decentralisation
When the system started, there were only 39 districts countrywide. Each of them had a chairperson, about 980 LC3s and over 25,000 LC1s. The number of districts have since risen to 81, with another 10 applications in waiting.

The empowerment of local communities to take charge of their political leadership was a cardinal element of decentralisation. This power is exercised through the community’s election of their local council leaders.

“Overtime, however, this seems to be eluding us. Today, there is less involvement of the community in raising resources for development, demanding accountability from their leaders, planning and budgeting,” says John Wcyliffe Karazarwe, the president of the Uganda Local Governments Association and chairman Ntungamo district.

For two years now, LC1 elections have not been held and the legality of the current councils is under scrutiny. The delay, according to the Electoral Commission, is due to lack of funds.

In several districts, influence from national leaders has eroded the people’s mandate to freely elect their leaders. This happened in Ssembabule, Kayunga and Hoima.

When decentralisation started, the country was governed under a Movement system and leaders would be elected on individual merit.

However, in 2005, the country reverted to multiparty system and local leaders at all levels, under subsequent elections in 2006 stood under party system, creating contradictions to political decentralisation.

“We are aware that conducting council business under the new political dispensation continues to pose big challenges,” Karazarwe said. However, the Government is setting up guidelines on how to conduct business in local governments under multipartyism.

Various appointments at the district, municipality and sub-county levels, have also worked to confuse the political leadership. In most districts, RDCs, who are representatives of the President, are not in good terms with the elected district leadership.

Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, the first local government minister under the decentralisation system, says the dream was to give as much political power as possible to the population. “But it seems many of these cardinal roles are being eroded,” he says.

He sights vote rigging and recentralisation of appointments as a big threat to the system.

Administrative decentralisation
Originally, district councils appointed all civil servants, including CAOS, through the district service commissions. Two years ago, the appointment of CAOs and town clerks was recentralised and plans are underway to introduce the same system when appointing other key district staff.

“We recentralised the appointment of CAOs because district leaders were influencing their operations,” said, Maj. Gen Kahinda Otafiire, the local government minister.

“CAOs and town clerks hold strategic positions. We had to institute mechanisms to enable them perform their duties professionally with minimum interference,” he said.

However, Karazarwe said the recentralisation of the appointment of top district officials generates concerns on whether they remain responsible to councils.

Lack of qualified and competent staff also affects the system. While district chairpersons should have an equivalent of A’level certificate, there is no minimum educational qualification for LC3s, yet they manage huge amounts of resources.

The state minister for local government, Hope Mwesigye, said the issue had been deliberated upon at several fora and it was realised that some sub-counties would have no qualified people even if the requirement was put at just O’level.

Overall, administrative decentralisation still faces many challenges. But more so, the current call for recentralisation of key appointments in the district threatens to rewind the achievements of the system, if it is not carefully done.