The Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is mandated by Parliament to oversee the activities and programmes of the select Government Departments and Institutions including the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs under which the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) falls.
Last Wednesday, the committee chaired by Hon. Jacob Oboth Oboth met the team from URSB led by the Deputy Registrar General –Finance & Administration, Alfred Mugisha
The Legislators were receiving URSB’s Budget Framework Paper for FY 2020/21 which was presented by the Deputy Registrar General -Registries, Mrs Jane Okot P’Bitek Langoya.
URSB is a key player in enhancing the competitiveness of the economy through registration services which include; Civil Registration, Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, Business Registration, Registration of Securities in Movable Properties and Insolvency Services.
“You are one of the shining stars in the list of government agencies. Your performance is outstanding and we would like to thank you for the good work. We are quite impressed with the reports from URSB” said the Committee Chairperson, Hon. Jacob Oboth Oboth.
Other Committee Members re-echoed the Chairperson’s views, adding that URSB is on the right course and therefore deserved the support of Parliament to move forward. The MPs also said they were impressed with the turn-around of services and continued growth of mandate.
The URSB team presented their report that highlighted key performance areas, challenges, as well as the institution’s priorities for the next Five years.
“We believe with your support as Parliament, together with the Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development, we will be to have our funding gaps plugged, giving us even better platforms to grow our Non Tax Revenue collections in addition to increasing our service coverage across the country,” said Mrs. Langoya, adding that URSB would fully cooperate with Parliament and furnish it with all the information it required to support their plea for adequate funding.
“Mr Chairman, we believe if we are granted more funding to cover our automation strategy, recruit additional staff since our staff structure is only 58% filled, we will be able to perform better than we already are. We ask that you look into this.”
Mrs. Langoya told the Committee that the Bureau needed 15.738 billion to enhance productivity and promote expansion to provide nationwide services. “For example, implementation of the URSB All-Digital-All-Online strategy to have all services e-based requires 3billion shillings” said Mrs Langoya.
The URSB team also presented the unfunded priorities which included operationalization of the approved Human Resource Structure to improve the staffing level that currently stands at only 58%, implementation of the URSB All-digital-All Online drive to have all services e-based, Establishment of additional One-Stop Shops across the country, Continuous staff capacity building to cope with progress in technology, Rolling out of electronic marriage registration systems to significantly improve formalization of marriages, and Establishment of the Geographical Indications Registry.
“Please point out the priority areas you believe are crucial for your performance and let us know. We will invite the Ministry of Finance together with URSB and agree on how we can get them funded,” said Hon. Oboth Oboth.
Deputy Registrar General, Alfred Mugisha pointed out that URSB had grown its budget from UGX 2.3 bn. in FY 2010/2011 to UGX 25bn in 2019/2020 and its Non Tax Revenue (NTR) had grown tremendously from UGX 5.8 Billion in 2010/2011 to UGX 56.3 billion in FY 2018/2019.
Hon. Abdu Katuntu told the Committee Members that Uganda had one of the best Companies Act globally and that he was happy URSB was doing a great job at formalizing the economy.