The Office of the President through the Directorate of Socio-Economic Monitoring and Research in collaboration with the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the National Building Review Board and the Internal Security Organization has organized an oversight inspection exercise of service delivery in two sub-regions.

According to Beatrice Akello Akori, the Minister of State in the Office of the President in charge of Economic Monitoring, confirmed that the exercise is scheduled to take place from Tuesday, October 31, 2023.

Akori who is also the Woman Member of Parliament for Agago district, told a news conference on Monday that: “The exercise will be conducted in Arua City and the sampled districts of Arua, Madi-Okollo, Adjumani, and Pakwach in West Nile, Alebtong, Otuke, Amolatar, Kole and Oyam in Lango sub-region.”

Akello noted that the Government has undertaken several reforms and spent massive resources over the past two decades to enhance the quality of public services in Uganda as a means of reducing poverty and improving livelihoods among Ugandans.

She noted that strategic investments have been made in the service delivery areas of: physical infrastructure development especially roads and energy; human resources development in areas of education, skills development, health, water and sanitation; facilitating access to production inputs in agriculture and industry and promotion of science, technology and innovation.

“Despite Government of Uganda’s commitment to improving service delivery, there is a general outcry by citizens and policymakers that resources have not resulted in effective public service delivery and poverty remains at high and unacceptable rates,” she emphasized.

The minister noted that almost 40% of Uganda households still in subsistence economy, adding that, “about 39% of Ugandan households are still in the subsistence economy and many Ugandans are unable to access adequate and good quality Public Services in many parts of the Country.”

Accordingly, the Office of the President has organized this oversight inspection exercise with the aim of assessing the implementation status of both Central and Local Government Projects/Programs with the aim of strengthening accountability for results and facilitating learning.

“This is in line with the mandate of the office of the President and my mandate of carrying out oversight field inspections/monitoring to bring forward issues constraining service delivery for redress or Policy Review,” Akori explained.

Previously, Akello’s ministry has conducted similar exercises in Bunyoro, Busoga, Sebei, Bugisu, Acholi, Greater Masaka, Kigezi, Ankole sub-regions and Wakiso districts. During these exercises, issues that required the Chief Administrative Officers and Town Clerks to handle administratively were put to their attention for redress and the rest were referred to the responsible entities for further management including corruption cases.

A case in point is in Kanungu district, where some projects that were abandoned were completed after committing the contractor, in Kalangala district, the Youth Livelihood funds stolen by the community development officer were recovered.

The number of contracts awarded under a lot in the UGFIT program has been reduced from 5 to a maximum of two. Also, out of the 117 case files opened, 4 officers had been charged in courts of law, 5 had corrective action taken, 72 closed and 116 cases were underway waiting for completion of investigations.

In addition, several stakeholder meetings have been held to disseminate the field findings and also get the feedback on how far the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Local Governments are implementing the recommendations.

“Therefore, this oversight inspection exercise is one of our renewed impetuses of ensuring improved service delivery and socio-economic transformation of our citizenry though effective monitoring of government policies, programmes and projects,” Akori stated.

The inspection will ensure constraints to effective service delivery are identified and actionable recommendations devised some of which will involve administrative actions, others include further stakeholder engagements and management that may result to prosecution and finally there could be need for policy review. It is for this reason that a Cabinet information paper shall be prepared detailing the above so as to ensure improved service delivery.