In the next three years, the government of Uganda expects to merge a total of 180 agencies and commissions, according to the information mininster.
Judith Nabakooba made the decision on Tuesday saying the cabinet meeting on Monday adopted a resolution to merge the agencies and commissions.
“The proposed plan presented a road map that will be followed over a three-year period to reorganize a number of ministries and institutions with a view of improving service delivery,” Nabakooba said in a statement.
She added, “When completed, the proposed reorganization of government entities will save government up to 988billion shillings while at the same time increasing efficiency.”
Government’s plan to merge the agencies was first floated in 2018 but put on hold pending further debate on the proposals.
The plan came into being after Internal Security Organisation (ISO), responding to an earlier demand by President Museveni for information on how much government ministries and agencies were spending, submitted a report on November 25 that year, which revealed that a lot of money was being spent on duplicated or overlapping functions between main ministries and agencies.
ISO recommended reforms by way of abolishing and merging agencies with overlapping roles with a few of cutting down on wasteful expenditure and using the savings for other purposes, including the enhancement of civil servants’ salaries.
The plan was approved on September 10 2018 during a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Museveni.
The proposed merger was part of a mega reorganisation plan aimed at, among other things, realigning functions of agencies and preventing duplication of roles and waste of public funds.
The plan
Cabinet had agreed last September to only preserve Kampala Capital City Authority, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the National Medical Stores (NMS) but disband, merge or transfer up to 60 other such agencies back to parent ministries.
It was agreed, for instance, that the National Registration Services Bureau would revert to the Ministry of Justice. The Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra), Uganda Road Fund (URF) and Transport Licensing Board (TLB) were to revert to the mother Ministry, Works, Transport and Communication.
Under the arrangement, the electricity generation, transmission and distribution companies, and the Rural Electrification Agency were to be merged into a single entity; while the Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board and Departed Asians Properties Custodian Board were to be placed under the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
The National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), the Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council (UTCC), Dairy Development Authority (DDA), Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) were to be sent back to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.
The National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) and the NGO Bureau were to be downgraded and placed under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, while the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) was to be placed under the Ministry of Information Communication Technology and National Guidance.
The Uganda Land Commission was to be sent back to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, while the Uganda Aids Commission and Uganda Blood Transfusion Services were to be sent back to the Ministry of Health.