42 govt agencies don’t have titles for their land, says AG

Officials from the Uganda Land Commission (ULC), the department which processes titles for all public land, this week told Monitor that efforts are being made to register the land.

Mr Robert Nyumba, the secretary general of ULC, said significant progress has been made in this direction since Mr Muwanga released his findings last year, but decried funding gaps that affect their operations.

In response to the AG’s concerns, the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Uganda Police Force, Uganda Prisons Service, Office of the President and Ministry of Agriculture have started registering their land with ULC.

“The above notwithstanding, Cabinet observed that government assets and facilities were generally not well maintained and directed the Head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet to ensure that [they] are well managed,” he said.

According to the report, 59 out of its 86 pieces of land belonging to the Agriculture ministry are untitled; while 31 pieces under Defence are untitled.  

Uganda Railways Corporation has only six out of 281 pieces of land titled, all of the Judiciary’s 95 pieces are untitled, Dairy Development Authority had 35 of its 55 pieces untitled, National Animal Genetic Resources Centre & Data Bank has five out of its 21 pieces untitled, among others.

Mr Nyumba said that the Office of the President is spearheading reforms in asset management in the public service as directed by Cabinet.

“…To this effect, ULC and the ministry of Lands are developing guidelines on registering and managing government land,” he said.

In a separate interview, State minister for Lands, Mr Sam Mayanja, promised to personally follow up with ULC to ensure that all government land is surveyed and titled.

“We want to first of all understand where this land is then start surveying and processing the titles,” he said.

The Auditor General also discovered that 7.6 acres of land under the ministry of Trade were not recorded in the ministry’s land register.

He noted that plots 9, 11 and 13 located along Corporation Rise in Bukoto, Kampala, valued at Shs1.9 billion, not only lacked titles but had not been disclosed in the memorandum statement, which could complicate proper follow up.

Another entity he highlighted is the National Forestry Authority (NFA).
“I further noted that 36 pieces of land on which NFA offices sit did not have land titles, and approximately 241,604 hectares (22 percent) of the total area of 1,088,430 hectares gazetted as forest reserves are encroached with agriculture, settlements, mining among others,” Mr Muwanga reported.

Mr Nyumba said that the main problem they facing in relation to securing titles is shortage of funds.

“Over the years, field activities which lead to titling of land such as sensitisation and surveying have been considered consumptive expenditures and, as such, have always faced budget cuts. 
For example, in the FY 2020/21, ULC had allocated Shs2 billion towards titling of government land, but these funds were never released due to budget cuts,” he said. 

In FY2022/23, ULC had an overall budget of about Shs41 billion but only about 70 percent of this was released, the ULC budget in the current financial year was cut to a paltry Shs27 billion, Mr Nyumba added.

Other red flags
Mr Muwanga also observed that on several occasions, pubic bodies sidelined ULC whose mandate to secure government real estate is stated in Section 49 of the Land Act.

These, he said, were mainly to universities and statutory corporations whose managers claimed that since they were incorporated by seal it means that they have the legal rights to acquire and hold land in their custody.

“Interviews with the entities revealed a sense of mistrust associated with losing their land if placed under the custody of ULC.                                                                                                                 

Failure to transfer all government land into the custody of ULC affects the government’s ability to effectively manage public land for effective and efficient service delivery,” he noted.

Underutilisation
Mr Muwanga said that some entities have underused their land which situation has attracted encroachers. About 34 entities had their 434 pieces of land encroached upon.

“Non-utilisation of land and use of land for unapproved [projects] defeats the purpose for acquisition which may affect the government’s ability to achieve its intended objectives…,” Mr Muwanga argued.

Coupled with shortage of funds, Mr Nyumba also blamed the failure to title public land on lack of an enabling legal framework which would help streamline some of activities and roles.

“We also have a huge staffing gap which has recently been slightly enhanced. For the longest time, the Commission had only two technical officers; a senior land officer and a land officer serving the entire country,” he said.

“We have currently been able to secure support from the ministry of Lands in the form of secondment of two legal officers and two surveyors. The Public Service Commission is in the process of recruiting two land officers, and we have also been able to recruit other officers on contract basis”.

Agencies ignore ULC 
Mr Muwanga noted the ULC in usually ignored by agencies as and when they buy land. Of 19 entities which acquired land in the period under review, five did notify the ULC of their purchase of a total of 1,669.84 hectares at a cost of Shs45.9 billion.

“In addition, four entities did not specify the sizes/cost of land to be acquired… This was mainly attributed to laxity by management not to provide complete recording of land size and approximate land cost in the plans...,” he said.

In response to this concern, Mr Nyumba explained that some entities established by statute have been registering land under their corporate names.

“However, the Constitution requires that all government land should be held under ULC. The Ministry of Lands and ULC will advise those entities to register their land under ULC,” he said.
The Lands ministry, he said, is currently updating the Uganda National Land Information System to include features that will enable ULC properly managing an inventory of all government land and developments thereon.

Govt agencies, hospitals with untitled land

Agency     Titled     Untitled
National Animal Genetic Resources Centre & Data Bank (NAGRIC & DB)    16    5
Dairy Development Authority (DDA)    20    35
Director of Public Prosecutions.    --    70
The Court of Judicature    ---    95
The Law Development Centre    --    7
Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development    --    --
Uganda Civil Aviation Authority    18    18
Uganda Railways Corporation.    275    6
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation    00    36
Uganda Free zones Authority    --    4
Uganda Development Corporation    --    2
Uganda Wildlife Research and Training Institute    --    
National Forestry Authority    --    36
National Meteorological Authority    2    7
Uganda National Oil Company    --    2
Gulu University    8    5
Lira University.    --    2
Makerere University.    --    3
Muni University     4    2
Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB)    --    1
Uganda Virus Research Institute    --    4
Mulago National Referral Hospital    5    22

Govt institutions with untitled land 

Name    Titled    Untitled
Ministry of Agriculture.    27    59
Ministry of Justice    --    9
Ministry of Defence    --    31
Ministry of Water    151    221
Ministry of Trade        4
Ministry of Education    2    1