Gen Otafiire Defends Merging of Govt Agencies

The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Gen Kahinda Otafiire has justified the need by government to merge the different agencies for proper running of government.

This week, government officially announced the merging of agencies revealing that the mushrooming agencies had bloated government’s expenditure budget with the Ministry of Public Service saying that the merged agencies were consuming over Shs 900Bn in wage bill.

The Minister made the justification while appearing before the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the security interest in Movable Property Bill No.1 of 2018.

Otafiire defended the decision by Government to merge various agencies arguing that these had created a parallel Government within the country.

Otafiire’s remarks were in response to concerns raised by MPs on how Government intends to undertake its plans at the time the whole system is about to be changed.

“The agencies bloated up to 153 and we realized many were doing more or less the same thing. Many agencies resulted to sort of creating a parallel government. There was a government within a government.”

Otafiire assured the legislators that the merging of industries wouldn’t affect government work and service delivery in the country but work rather would boost efficiency.

Among the agencies affected in the reshuffle is the Uganda National Registration Bureau (URBS) that will revert back to the Justice Ministry, although the move has been protested by some MPs on the Committee.

Ndorwa East MP, Wilfred Niwagaba warned that reverting URSB back to the Ministry of Public Service will expose Ugandans to the uncalled for bureaucracy tendencies of government.

“When we see URSB being disbanded and going back to the Ministry we get more worried of the same bureaucracy and inefficiencies in public service well knowing that the achievements so far attained will be belittled.”