The Minister of State for Finance in charge of General Duties, Henry Musasizi, has reiterated his ministry’s commitment to take all the necessary steps, including securing relevant resources that will give effect to the policy on Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure adopted by Cabinet.

The Minister made the commitment on Thursday, February 22, 2024, while appearing before the Parliament Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development where he presented the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Financial Sector) (Amendment) Bill,2024.

Legislations that require amendment/repeal include: Non-Performing Assets Recovery Trust Act, Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions and Money Lenders Act, the PERD Act, the National Planning Authority Act, National Population Council Act and National Physical Planning Act.

The Executive on Tuesday presented several Bills for enactment by Parliament to operationalize the merger of government agencies.

The Bills include the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Education Sector) (Amendments) Bill, 2024 and the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Internal Affairs Sector) (Amendments) Bill, 2024.

Others are the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Natural Resources and Environment Sector) (Amendments) Bill, 2024 as well as the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Works and Transport Sector) (Amendments) Bill, 2024.

The Speaker rejected Bukanga North MP Nathan Byanyima’s plea for wider consultation on the merger of agencies.

"We have been here longer, we sat here and we were hurried to privatize.  We sat here up to midnight privatizing. We said we shouldn’t sell Uganda Commercial Bank unanimously. Somebody said UCB will be sold on a Sunday and it was sold on Sunday. I don’t want us to go back to where we were. Some of you when you are sleeping, some of us don’t sleep, we think about this nation. While you sleep for six hours, I sleep for 3 hours, but I think," Byanyima said.

Saving over sh1 trillion

Government chief whip Dennis Hamson Obua (Ajuri county) on February 2, 2024, said the rationalisation is poised at strengthening departments of ministries and making them more functional as opposed to duplication of services.

“When we rationalise, we shall save the public some expenditure to a tune of over shillings one trillion as mentioned in the presentation of the minister of public service. The gist of rationalisation is; one, to avoid duplication of services where you have the mainstream ministry with a department and there is again an independent or autonomous agency, authority or commission doing more or less the same work,” he said.

Background

The development comes two months after a heated Parliament chaired by Speaker Anita Annet Among rejected an omnibus Bill titled “Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Repeals and Amendments) Bill 2023.”

Key among those that were supposed to be dissolved were Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) which was to be mainstreamed into the Works Ministry alongside Uganda Road Fund (URF).

The others on the chopping block, included the National Forestry Authority (NFA), Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA), Diary Development Authority (DDA) and Equal Opportunity Commission (EOP).  The latter was to be merged with Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) simply because they reportedly almost play the same role.