Govt in fresh push to scrap 11 'wasteful' agencies
Apr 05, 2024
The aforementioned draft laws intend to give effect to the policy on rationalization of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX).
Legislators in a plenary discussing the fate of government agencies to intergrated into the their mother ministries. (Photos by Miriam Namutebi)
Dedan Kimathi
Journalist @New Vision
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Eleven agencies are set to be mainstreamed into their mother ministries.
This follows the tabling of stand-alone rationalization Bills by Youth and Children Affairs State Minister Balaam Barugahara and Finance State Minister (general duties) Henry Musasizi.
These are the Non-Governmental Organisations (Amendment) Bill 2024, the National Coffee (Amendment) Bill 2024, The Children (Amendment) Bill 2024, the Non-Performing Asset Recovery Trust Act (Amendment) Bill 2024, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (Amendment) Bill 2024 and Higher Students Education Financing (Amendment) Bill 2024.
Others include Free Zones (Amendment) Bill 2024, Dairy Industry (Amendment) Bill 2024, Cotton (Amendment) Bill 2024, Warehouse Receipt System (Amendment) Bill 2024, and Agricultural Chemicals Control (Amendment) Bill 2024.
The NGO (Amendment) Bill 2024 moved by Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Kahinda Otafiire seeks to mainstream and rationalise the National NGO Bureau into the Internal Affairs Ministry as it was before the coming into effect of the NGO Act 2016.
The entity is in charge of registering and granting permits to prospective NGOs.
Proponents, however, argue that this can be handled by a department within the mother ministry as opposed to having a fully-fledged corporate bureau.
The National Coffee (Amendment) Bill 2024, on the other hand; seeks to mainstream the functions of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) into the agriculture ministry.
The aforementioned draft laws intend to give effect to the policy on rationalization of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX).
Public Sector Reforms
This master plan, which seeks to slice public expenditure by shillings one trillion, was adopted by the Cabinet three years ago.
However, a move to scrap over 35 Government agencies, ministries, and departments (MDAs) was brought to a screeching halt by Speaker Anita Annet Among.
On November 14, 2023, Among split hairs with public service minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa who had bundled affected entities into a single omnibus bill.
Also, she said before Parliament could wield the axe, there was a need for a cost-benefit analysis.
“Bring entity by entity such that we compare our report together with your report. Bring a Bill of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), if you want to repeal UNRA it is this House to repeal or not,” Among said.
Rule 116(1) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament stipulates that matters with no proper relation to each other shall not be provided for in the same Bill.
At the time, entities including the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), National Forestry Authority (NFA), Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA), Diary Development Authority (DDA), and Equal Opportunity Commission (EOP) had been lined up for mainstreaming.
NRM caucus
This forced the Government to go back to the drawing board. They finally made headway at a National Resistance Movement (NRM) parliamentary caucus meeting on February 2, 2024.
The engagement at State House, Entebbe was chaired by President Yoweri Museveni. This was after the majority of members approved a resolution to support public sector reforms in an unpacked manner (case by case basis).
Second rejection
However, after being granted the green light, the Government stumbled once again, after a litany of 20 Bills it had tabled on February 20 this year, were recalled over missing certificates of financial implication.
Section 76(1) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 (PFMA) says every Bill introduced in Parliament shall be accompanied by a certificate of financial implications issued by the minister.
Affected Bills included the National Tribunal Bill 2023, which sought to merge the Tax Appeals Tribunal and the Electricity Disputes Tribunal.
Despite a spirited fight by Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, MPs on the legal committee such as Ibrahim Semujju Nganda (Kira Municipality, FDC) and Asuman Basalirwa (Bugiri Municipality, JEEMA) objected to processing documents they deemed as shallow.
These argued that without the certificates of financial implication, the Bills were not worth their precious time.
“In fact, in my ordinary interpretation, this will turn out to be like what the Baganda call ‘ekiro ekitwala munaku’ (idle letter). That’s what Hon. Muruli Mukasa has brought…..This is nothing like money,” Semujju said.
“When you look at what Section 76 is talking about it even indicates the time. That in itself should be able to come out in the certificate which, with due respect, is not reflected here,” Basalirwa supplemented.
MPs speak out
Fearing a repeat of this scenario, Dan Kimosho (Kazo county, NRM) yesterday asked Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa to ensure that the submitted Bills have all requisite documents.
“In the same manner, they were tabled and we reversed them, we are doing the same. Isn’t it procedurally right that you check and inform the house so that we don’t have a third phase because that would be a three-time retake and at university, they would expel you,” Kimosho said.
He was, however, overruled by Tayebwa on the pretext that this is not provided for in the rules of procedure.
“Unfortunately, the rules don’t allow us at the plenary level, we don’t scrutinise and process documents, that’s the work of the committee,” Tayebwa said.
Rationalisation cost
Easy as it sounds, rationalisation is not a walkover. This is so because ample resources shall be required to pay off restructured staff.
Documents reviewed by New Vision Online show that shillings 79.3 billion were requested by the public service ministry to cater for the payment of gratuity, pension, and severance packages for the 2,170 staff whose jobs are on the line.
Muruli Mukasa disclosed this while appearing before the sector committee chaired by Martin Ojara Mapenduzi (Layibi-Bardege, Indep) in December last year.
The engagement bordered on the Budget Framework Paper (BFP) for the 2024/25 Financial Year (FY).
During the sitting, Moses Aleper (Chekwii County) revealed that Uganda’s “national yearly wage Bill is around shillings 7.2 trillion”.
Aleper further warned “For us in accounting, we do total reporting, we don’t just go for financials. We also look at the social and environmental costs. Let us look at the shillings 700 billion we are saving, the cost of doing this exercise, and then the social cost of the people who will lose jobs, there will be a political backlash, and naturally, it will arise.”
Experts speak out
As Parliament gets ready to dissect successful Bills, development economists such as Dr Fred Muhumuza contend that the same measures need to be extended to local government administrative units.
“We shall even request for rationalisations in more sectors since some entities are so large for no big reason. We shall also call for reduction of districts, and I hope that the government will realize soon that too many districts are also a waste of resources,” Muhumuza said.
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