Kadaga cautions against rushing merger of agencies

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has called for careful discussions on the proposed merger of Government departments and agencies. Kadaga is of the view that the merger could have devastating effects on the economy.

The proposal to merge up to 53 government departments and agencies was mooted last year following reports that many of the agencies were redundant, underperforming and duplicating work, yet they take chunks of money for their operations.

Earlier in the year, President Yoweri Museveni had ordered for a review of the public service with a view of scrapping, downsizing and merging government agencies and Authorities in a move he says will deal with wastage of Uganda’s meagre resources. He argued that mushrooming government agencies were a burden to taxpayers.

Up to 53 agencies were subsequently listed for possible mergers. The affected institutions include the National Council for Higher Education, National Curriculum Development Centre and the Directorate of Industrial Training that was merged into one Council.

Uganda Tourism Board, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Uganda Wildlife Education Centre which will be mainstreamed under the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, while the Insurance Regulatory Authority, Uganda Retirement Benefits Authority, and Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority, have been merged to create specialized directorates from non-bank supervision within the Bank of Uganda.

But Kadaga questioned how the government arrived at the decision to merge entities adding that joining some of the entities will only kill their purpose.  Kadaga was today speaking during a meeting with officials from the Uganda Aids Commission who were presenting a report on the status and funding of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

According to the proposed merger, Uganda Aids Commission and Uganda Blood Transfusion Services are supposed to revert back to the Ministry of Health. Kadaga cautioned that the merger should not be rushed.

Other agencies mainstreamed to mother Ministries are; Uganda National Roads Authority to the Ministry of Works, National Identification and Registration Authority-NIRA to Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Information Technology Authority-NITA to the Ministry of ICT and Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA) to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Development among others.

Under the new arrangement, Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries ministry will absorb National Agricultural Advisory Services, Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council, Dairy Development Authority, Uganda Coffee Development Authority and Cotton Development Organization.

The Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board and Departed Asians Properties Custodian Board were pushed to the Finance Ministry while the Electricity Generation, Transmission and Distribution and the Rural Electrification Agency will be merged in a process that will result into loss of jobs for over 70 Executive Directors.

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