Minister faults OPM top officials for indecisiveness

By Francis Emorut               

Top officials in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) have been faulted for delaying procurement processes that has caused poor service delivery in the country.

"Indecisiveness, delayed decision making with regard to processing of payments or procurements when you are supposed to act on directives given by your superiors can be very costly as it affects service delivery," Rebecca Otengo Amuge the state minister for Northern Uganda region said.

Amuge was speaking during the opening of leadership development and organisational culture change training for senior managers of Office of the Prime Minister in Jinja.

The minister criticized the top officials for fearing to take action because of the repercussions when it comes to accountability especially after the OPM scandal in which over sh60b was misappropriated.

Amuge stressed the need for top managers to value time in processing payments and procurement for effective service delivery.

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Senior managers at OPM pose for a group photo with the minister of state for Northern Uganda, Rebecca Otengo Amuge (in red blouse) after opening the leadership training at Civil Service College.

The training meant for transformation leadership at OPM was conducted by Civil Service College Uganda and a facilitator from Public Service Transformation Directorate in the ministry of devolution and planning in Kenya Dr. Sylvester Obongo.

The training comes after needs assessment was carried out and found gaps such as absence of common understanding on the mandate of OPM, weak performance management practices and poor adaption of work practices using information communication technology that needed to be addressed.

It attracted the Permanent secretary, undersecretaries, directors, commissioners and heads of departments.

The minister urged the top leadership to exhibit the highest levels of standards in everything they do for effective and efficient service delivery.

"You are expected to be above reproach and to exhibit the highest levels of standards in everything you do if we are to be found worth of the role of coordinating, monitoring and evaluating performance of all other Government entities," she said.

On unquestionable integrity and loyalty, the minister implored senior managers to be loyal to the political leadership and Government all times.

She also called for greater transparency and accountability and exercising principles of good governance so as not to dent the image of OPM.

She appealed to top managers to work as a team with junior officers in order to enhance performance in service delivery.
 
Christine Guwatudde, the permanent secretary of OPM implored the senior managers to enhance their performance through rapid result initiative to improve service delivery in the country.

Senior managers take on the training

Aggrey Kibenge the undersecretary finance and administration pointed out that the training was vital for it strengthens the capability of top managers to be effective in coordination and monitoring roles of government business.

Dr. Albert Byamugisha commissioner monitoring and evaluation said the leadership training will help him acquire skills that enhance his capacity to monitor government programmes and deliver the expected output.

Dr. Robert Lilim the director of NUSAF II said the training will sharpen his acumen of leadership in managing the team he works with to the deliver results in service delivery.

Annet Musinguzi acting assistant commissioner Human Resource Management said the training will help in creating change in management style and cascade it to the lower level of management.