Overview:
The original blueprint was for a review of up to 157 agencies, with a proposal to retain 80 as semi-autonomous, return 33 to line ministries and merge 35 agencies into 19 entities.
KAMPALA – A fierce battle for jobs has erupted in government over the imminent merger and restructuring of departments and agencies.
Uganda government set out to reform its operations in a process of rationalizing government entities and government expenditures, in a process that will be carried out in two financial years of 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.
The plan that follows the decision of Cabinet is to downsize the government by eliminating duplication of responsibilities and eliminating wasteful expenditures.
However, available reports indicate that old guards within government are opposed to the development for fear to become the first causalities.
An applicant for the vacant position of Commissioner Maritime Administration at the Ministry of Works and Transport (MoWT) petitioned the permanent secretary protesting after a more senior official in the ministry, whose role is being phased out, tried to wiggle into the more junior role.
“I applied for the subject position in MoWT in the month of January 2023. However, no shortlisting has been done to this day which I found strange, especially with the newly appointed public service commission,” the petitioner, who signed off as Fred B. Musisi petitioned the PS.
“It has now come to my notice that [an] HR manager in MoWT has influenced the delaying of this recruitment in favour of another director whose position is being phased out,” he claimed, alleging that plans are now underway to cancel the recruitment and re-advertise to give an opportunity to the unnamed official whose role will soon become redundant, to apply.
“The reason being given for this delay is lack of wage, but it is well known that the position fell vacant in this financial year,” he said.
Mr. Waiswa Bageya, the Permanent Secretary at the works ministry, said he had received the petition and that he had referred the matter to the Public Service Commission
“Public Service Commission are the ones to communicate, advertise and request for a representative from the Ministry to help them short-list and interview the applicants,” Bageya added.
“I am still waiting for Public Service Commission to tell me what to do and since this matter is not urgent to a normal submission for which they can take their time unlike other requests put forward earlier for them to act on.”
The journey to restructure the government entities began with a July 2017 letter by President Museveni instructing then Vice President Edward Ssekandi and Prime Minister Ruhakana to develop a blueprint to eliminate “wastage of meagre resources.”
The re-organisation was also aimed at, among other things, realigning functions of agencies and preventing duplication of roles and waste of public funds.
Proponents at the time estimated that the mergers and or reversion of agencies to parents would save the government over Shs1 trillion.
The original blueprint was for a review of up to 157 agencies, with a proposal to retain 80 as semi-autonomous, return 33 to line ministries and merge 35 agencies into 19 entities.
The plan, however, ran into headwinds after the government realised that a number were either a creation of Acts of Parliament or international instruments and scrapping them would require a lengthy process to repeal the laws.
Other agencies were established to be encumbered with debts and inadequate preparation meant government was exposing itself to litigation by affected employees and other stakeholders.