NFA to return to Ministry of Water

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament sitting on the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources have recommended the amendment of the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act to return the National Forestry Authority-NFA to the Ministry of Water and Environment.

In their report to Parliament, the MPs agreed with the government that there is a lot of duplication of roles between the NFA, the Forest Sector Support Department [FSSD] in the Ministry of Water and Environment and the District Forestry Services that is costing the government billions of shillings every year.

“The committee observes that having overlapping mandates leads to duplication of work. Given that the Ministry already has a department under the Directorate of Environmental Affairs charged with managing and overseeing the forest sector development in Uganda, including the central and local forest reserves, it is, therefore, justifiable to merge and mainstream the NFA mandate into the existing government departmental structure to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts and the overlap of mandates,” the report reads in part.

It adds that mainstreaming the functions of NFA into the Ministry shall enable the reduction in government expenditure including on salaries and benefits and thus reduce the financial drain on public resources. The report says that the government will be able to save 22.1billion in the current financial year which will increase to 26.4billion Shillings in the next financial year yet only 4.3 billion Shillings will be required to pay terminal benefits of the workers of NFA who will lose their jobs.

The report however notes that 80% of the current NFA staff will be retained by the ministry to continue with the work they have been doing.

However, two MPs from the National Unity Platform opposition political party disagreed with the majority and wrote a minority report. Christine Kkaaya Nakimwero woman MP for Kiboga district and her Buvuma counterpart Suzan Mugabi said contrary to what the majority is saying, much of the 22billion Shillings government is saying it is going to save, is meant for activities that will be implemented regardless of the rationalization. “The budget appropriated to NFA is for sustainable management of Central Forest Reserves as per their approved work plan and budgets. Therefore, the proposal by the Bill of relieving the government of the wasteful administration and expenditure of maintaining the Authority is impossible in the short and medium term and concentration would rather be on strengthening NFA,” the MPs said.

They added that actually, NFA has improved in the collection of non-tax revenues which guarantees that in the long term, it will be able to generate its own money without depending on the consolidated fund.  “NFA has significantly boosted its financial performance, achieving an 83% increase in NTR over the years. Over the past four years, the Authority’s NTR increased from Shs 9.27 billion in 2020/21 to Shs16.983 billion in 2023/24…This growth reflects NFA’s strong trajectory and increasing capacity to generate its revenue to finance its operations,” the minority report reads in part.

In February 2021, the cabinet agreed to a policy on the rationalisation of government agencies that they said were taking a toll on national resources.

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URN