Fate of 14 Govt agencies sealed as UCDA, NITA-U get 3-year reprieve

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KAMPALA - The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Parliamentary caucus and President Yoweri Museveni have finally reached a consensus on rationalising 16 pending Government agencies.

Government Chief Whip Dennis Hamson Obua disclosed this during a media briefing at Parliament on Friday, September 6, 2024. This was after the climax of an NRM Parliamentary caucus at State House, Entebbe. 

The development comes after five intense meetings including a fiery agriculture committee session with the President on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at State House, Entebbe.

President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM Parliamentary caucus have finally reached a consensus on rationalising 16 pending Government agencies.

Parliament, govt disagreement

During heated sittings in April this year, MPs stood their ground and retained four agricultural agencies alongside the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Uganda Road Fund and the National Forestry Authority (NFA), among others.

The agricultural agencies, which included National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) and Dairy Development Authority (DDA) were meant to be mainstreamed into the agriculture ministry (MAAIF). 

The overriding argument was that scrapping them would reverse gains the country has made in the agriculture sector.

MPs led by the agriculture committee chairperson Janet Okori Moe (Abim District Woman MP) questioned the timing, arguing that with DDAs intervention, milk production has increased from 2.7 billion litres in 2019 to 3.9 billion litres by 2023.

These also contended that milk collection centres have also increased from 15 in 1986 to 547 in 2023.

“Milk processing companies have increased from just one (Dairy Corporation Limited) with a processing capacity of 60,000 litres per day in 1986 to 160 processing companies today with a processing capacity of 3.9 million litres per day,” the agriculture committee report added.

Obua acknowledged that the rationalization of several government agencies would come with tough decisions, particularly regarding salary adjustments. (Credit: Edith Mayanja)

MPs also questioned the timeliness of the move because milk exports have more than tripled from shillings 287.4 billion to  976.4 billion over the last five years.

In conclusion, they cited no cause for concern since Uganda is on the verge of penetrating the $500 million (equivalent to about shillings 1.9 trillion) Algerian market. 
Initially, industry state minister David Bahati had suggested that merging DDA, which was established by the Dairy Industry Act, 1998 would save the Government shillings 11.02 billion in the 2024/25 Financial Year and shillings 11.5 billion in subsequent years.

With the dairy authority under the agriculture ministry, the Government had argued that they would only spend shillings 6.61 billion on the entity in the forthcoming financial year. 

In addition, only shillings 53 million would be spent on employee’s terminal benefits. However, this was rejected by MPs for lack of a proper downsizing plan.

These noted that whereas DDA has a staff establishment of 140 positions, only 91 are filled. Worse still, she noted that the CFI provides that only ten staff will be laid off, leaving eighty-one others in suspense.

The likes of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) and the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) were also saved in the same precincts.

For instance, in the case of UCDA which derives its mandate from the National Coffee Act, 2001, lawmakers argued against a commonly held assumption of mandate overlaps.

Arguing that at the moment, when Uganda is looking at growing its coffee exports from 20 million (60kg bags) by 2030, UCDA needs to be strengthened instead. 

Official documents indicate that through the efforts of UCDA, the country’s coffee exports rose from 3.5 million bags nine years ago to 6.08 million bags (valued at shillings 2.1 trillion) in the 2020/21 Financial Year (FY).

That aside, during proceedings, it emerged that the certificate of financial implications touching UCDA was defective.

“You are saying that you are going to save about shillings 80 billion, yet the budget you have always provided UCDA is sh48bn. How could you make such a mistake? Would you like to elaborate and explain how that is possible?” Elijah Okupa (Kasilo county, Independent) retorted.

In mainstreaming NAADS, the Government had planned to save shillings 98.2 billion in the next financial year and shillings 103.42 billion subsequently.

The overall total costs on terminal benefits of 80 employees to be laid off was estimated at shillings 5.23 billion.

Speaker Anita Annet Among, however, explained that it was within the Government’s right to retable Bills that had been rejected if they deemed so.

“We take note that this Parliament is a temple of democracy and you have expressed your democratic right. We have a duty as Government to go and dress these bills better, hopefully next time, you will look at them from a different angle,” state minister for industry David Bahati concurred.

Three-year transitional period

However, Obua announced yesterday that they had unanimously agreed to provide a three-year transitional period for UCDA and The National Information and Technology Authority - Uganda (NITA-U).

He explained that NITA-U is currently running two projects and abruptly mainstreaming it in the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and National Guidance would jeopardize them.

“NITA -U will be given the opportunity to implement both the loans and the grant. Then once the three years are coming to an end, that will mark the end. So that is why we have those two. But the rest of the other 14 remaining will be rationalized,” Obua stated.

Rising further, he explained, “A transitional provision in any law is legitimate, is legal, is constitutional. Because even from our history, the current constitution had a transitional provision. If I'm not mistaken, Article 257, which was later or now repealed. But at the point of promulgating, there was a transitional provision. I don't want to move into other acts of Parliament now”.

Upon rationalisation of UCDA, he stated that there will be an internationally accredited department established under the agriculture ministry to look at strategic crops like coffee.

“That takes some due process, the reason we are saying for now, we create a transitional period for coffee because that process of accreditation at the international level will take some time. But also to give the ministry some time to reorganize itself,” Obua elaborated.

Adding that this does not imply that experts in other Government entities including UCDA will be sent packing, except if it is their own choice.

That said, Obua acknowledged that the rationalization of several government agencies would come with tough decisions, particularly regarding salary adjustments.

“That Executive Director is paid 40 million. There is a commissioner who is the head of the department but a scientist who receives the salary of a scientist at the level of a commissioner. When you make a comparative analysis, would you continue paying that ED forty million when he or she is not a researcher at the expense of this scientist?” he posed.

“You would rather engage this scientist to pay him at the level of our public service pay now, you would have made some savings from that money being received by that ED to pay some soldiers, teachers and more scientists. That’s the rationale of rationalization,” Obua further illustrated.

UNRA, URF fate sealed

The pronouncement has dashed any remaining hopes for the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and the Uganda Road Fund (URF) to be retained.

Both agencies have been at the heart of a long-standing battle between MPs and President Museveni. 

Initially slated to be integrated into the Ministry of Works and Transport, MPs fiercely opposed the move when repeal bills were previously tabled, insisting that it would severely undermine Uganda’s infrastructure, which only recently emerged from a state of disrepair.

At the time, MPs led by Dan Kimosho who was then the chairperson of the physical infrastructure committee pointed out that whereas UNRA is not a revenue-generating entity, it is currently collecting toll revenues amounting to sh3.7billion on a monthly basis from the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway.

Over the last two years, MPs noted that the entity headed by Allen Kagina collected shillings 75 billion as toll revenue and this is likely to increase with the completion of the Busega-Mpigi and Kampala-Jinja expressways.

Hence by removing it, the Government would be shooting itself in the foot.  

Obua announced that they had unanimously agreed to provide a three-year transitional period for UCDA and The National Information and Technology Authority - Uganda (NITA-U). (Credit: Edith Namayanja)

This was after Works and Transport Minister Gen. Katumba Wamala complained about mandate overlaps, duplication and wastage of taxpayers' resources.

“The current staffing levels of the three entities include a total of 1,544 both permanent, contingency, contract, senior management earning a total of shillings 71 billion. The works ministry has 544 members of staff and the wage bill is shillings 17 billion,” Katumba explained.

“The staffing at the Road Fund is 36 which isn’t much, UNRA’s wage bill is shs71b. If we get all these staff to be employed under public service terms, we shall be saving shs39b in wages only per month without talking about other overheads,” he added.