The Secretary to the Treasury and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Keith Muhakanizi has opposed the mooted plan to have some government agencies and parastatals merged in order to increase efficiency.
The debate on dissolving some of the many government agencies and restructuring others back into the respective line Ministries emerged last year following a report by the Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation, Gen Saleh to the President and a subsequent directive of the President to ministers to study and make recommendations by the end of 2017. A committee was set up to study and recommend possible mergers. The Internal Security Organization (ISO) later termed these agencies as ‘wasteful’
In the report released in November 2017 titled ‘Rationalisation of commissions, agencies and authorities in Uganda for better efficiency’ followed an investigation by 12 people including Gen Salim Saleh on the directive of President Yoweri Museveni.
In its investigation, the team discovered that some agencies were money consuming and wasted revenue on foreign travel, workshops, welfare and entertainment and consultancy services.
As a result of these findings, some Members of Parliament were enraged and issued an 30-day ultimatum for government to review, dissolve and merge the 119 agencies.
Solomon Ssilwanyi, the MP for Bukhooli Central singled out Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) as the most extravagant of all agencies and blamed the agency for using tax payers’ money for outings, dance halls, categorizing it as the biggest spender on entertainment according to the 2016/17 budget.
But the Secretary to the Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi on Monday said that a decision to merge or revert these agencies to their mother Ministries in the name of saving money would hurt service delivery.
Muhakanizi was responding to a recommendation made by economic expert, Prof Elia Hisali during the launch of the IMF Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa. Hisali had argued that the proposal to restructure government was a step in the right direction as the country grapples with inefficiency.
“We need to be careful with this restructuring of government. We might think we are saving money but end up affecting service delivery,” Muhakanizi said.
“For example, taking back UNRA to the Ministry of Works is a disaster. Similary, revertinf NARO and NAADS to the Ministry of Agriculture that I know is a disaster,” he added.
He said that while government is exploring ways to increase frugality and reduce wasting tax payers’ money, he suggests that a balance be found so as not to compromise services that these agencies have been delivering.
“Our objective is not to save money but first, to deliver services,” Muhakanizi stressed.
In a letter dated July 17 2017 to the Ministers of Finance, Public Service and Presidency as well as the National Planning Authority, President Yoweri Museveni sought answers on why agencies were continuing to mushroom even when many were consumptive than generating money.
“Why have an agency when you have a department of government dealing with the same responsibility? Why have boards for money consuming units rather than money generating units?” the President asked.
While Muhakanizi’s argument is hinged on service delivery, the President worry had more to do with the fact that these agencies are executing parallel mandates at the expense of the already insufficient resources.