Cash-strapped national library left in tight spot

The National Library of Uganda (NLU) is running on fumes after the implementation of its plan was extended for the third time in as many years.

The shifting sands of the government’s rationalisation of agencies, commissions, and authorities have condemned the NLU to purgatory.

The latest date for commencement of the process per the Public Service ministry’s May 23 communication is December. Changes are consequently expected to get underway on July 1, 2024 under a readjusted blueprint.

“However, the approved structures cannot be implemented unless the review of the legal framework has been concluded,” Ms Catherine Bitarakwate, the ministry’s permanent secretary revealed in the letter, adding, “Currently, the review process for the legal framework that gives effect to the implementation of the new structures is still ongoing.”

Ms Bitarakwate directed all affected institutions back in May to only recruit new staff in critical areas and award contracts that do not exceed June 2024. An exception, she noted, applies to contracts awarded before February 2021 when the rationalisation process kicked off and that run beyond 2024.

“All contracts should have an embedded clause providing for termination depending on the recommendations of rationalisation, without attracting any additional costs,” she instructed.

Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka told Saturday Monitor that the ministry is only trying to insulate itself and the government by extension, against any possible litigation triggered by intended reforms that will lead to job losses, as well as grade and pay changes.

Tough times

For entities such the NLU, their annual budgets have already been whittled down. Mr Adonia Katungisa, the library’s director, told Saturday Monitor that currently, only Shs210 million of its Shs940 million annual budget is available to them. This translates to only Shs52.5 million being made available to the library each quarter.

“We are managing to continue running by scaling down operations and staffing levels. We selected only nine staff to remain working and the rest (12 staff members) were advised to stay home as the results of the submitted supplementary budget are awaited. We are having only one staff in each technical operation department at work,” Mr Katungisa disclosed.

He added: “We have submitted a request for more funds in the budget and renewal of contract appointment of staff whose contracts expired. We are suspending most major planned outputs such as inspection of public libraries, continuous professional development trainings, and payment of rent. The available budget is only enough to pay utilities and salaries of the eight retained staff.”

Mr Katungisa reckons an incapacitated library will be unable to perform its 22 functions as stipulated in the National Library Act, 2003, including Ugandans’ “constitutional right of free access to information, in particular public information.”

“The library will be evicted from the current location that the entity rents. And possible loss of employment by all the professional staff, because of the rationalisation restrictions, as all contracts ended on June 30, and they cannot be renewed unless there is money to pay them salaries,” Mr Katungisa further revealed, adding, “The NLU staff structure provides for 32 members of staff positions. Currently, only 21 positions are filled and the rest are vacant.”

Cost cutting

On February 22, 2021, the Cabinet took a decision to rationalise government agencies, commissions, authorities and public expenditure. This is intended to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery. In order to effectively implement this decision, the Cabinet approved an Implementation Roadmap (IR) for the implementation process. The IR was initially supposed to be spread across financial years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, with the objective of eliminating structural and functional duplications, as well as overlaps and wasteful expenditure.

Out of the 157 government agencies which were reviewed under the Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure Exercise (RAPEX) of 2018, a decision was taken to retain 80 agencies as semi-autonomous; 33 were to revert to their line ministries; while 35 were to be consolidated and merged into 19 entities.

Some of the major effects of the RAPEX implementation roadmap are that the budgets for all the affected institutions and agencies were limited to only 20 percent of their original outlay. It has also since 2018 suspended the appointment of new governing boards for the affected institutions.

1,600 job cuts

The NLU was supposed to be moved from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MoGLSD) to the Ministry of Education and Sports as of July 1. This exercise has been halted until the next financial year.

The scrapping of agencies will result in 1,565 government employees losing their jobs. Some of them will be absorbed under the new departments that will be created. The government estimates that it will be able to save Shs1 trillion ($267.8 million) annually after the successful restructuring roadmap.

Located on Buganda Road in Kampala, the NLU was midwifed by a 2003 Act. It replaced the Public Libraries Board, itself established in 1964. The NLU is the legal deposit library for Uganda.

Its functions include collecting, managing, preserving and disseminating Uganda’s documented heritage (recorded memory); providing local governments with policies, guidelines and standards for the management of public libraries and to oversee, inspect and guide local governments on the management of public libraries; promoting a reading culture in the country; and providing leadership in the field of library and information science in the country.

Mr Katungisa said the collection at NLU ranges from books (both text books and general reading); periodicals such as newspapers and journals and research reports.

“These collections are, however, only obtained through donations from Book Aid International as there is no budget for book purchases,” the library’s director revealed, adding, “For NLU, we also get collections through legal deposits by the authors/ publishers any time as and when they publish.”

There is only one library—the reference library—that is run under NLU. There are about 60 public libraries countrywide, but these are run by respective local governments; not the NLU that provides guidance and support to the libraries regardless.

“All the public libraries are in a sorry state characterised by poor structures and infrastructures; limited and in most cases no running budgets; inadequate or no staffing; and limited stock,” Mr Katungisa said, adding, “I think everybody will lose resulting from the government failing to offer library and information science social services to its people. The book sector stakeholders, who are the publishers, authors, printers, will not be served. The general public will fail to access the premises and library or information services at NLU. NLU will fail to execute its mandate. And staff will lose employment and income and their children failing to go back to school.”

Up in arms

The current state of affairs has prompted the Uganda Library and Information Association (ULIA) to petition the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MoGLSD) permanent secretary. According to the August 15 petition signed by the ULIA president, Francis Ekwaro, ULIA notes that the NLU is without a budget to support and run its activities during this period.

“As a result, 12 of the senior staff only turn up for work whenever they can as they await the results of a supplementary budget. The affected staff are worried that this is an indirect termination of their services, which is being done without notice and compensation for the period,” Mr Ekwaro writes, adding, “What’s worse is that some of the staff have permanent work contracts, while others still have running time on their contracts. The majority whose contacts are running off are technical staff. The few permanent staff are administrative staff, who cannot run the library.”

The ULIA says it is on this basis that it has decided to intervene in the matter related to the operations of the NLU to protect the 75-year-old institution, the educationalists, the publishers, the library users and readers, and the interests of professional workers.

In the petition, the ULIA makes seven demands to the MoGLSD. It is demanding the return of normalcy at the NLU with immediate effect as Ugandans are currently unable to access information at the library.

Others are the demand that the work contracts of professional (technical) staff be respected in accordance with the law; the MoGLSD provides assurance to protect the right to work and pay of the professional staff; allocation of adequate resources as was the case before the rationalisation to enable acquisition of library resources.

“We call upon the government to fully support the National Library of Uganda, city libraries and district libraries in Uganda because these institutions preserve the country’s national documentary heritage,” the petition reads.

The ULIA is also demanding, among others, that a new piece of land be assigned to the NLU for the construction of a modern library. The land, per Mr Katungisa, is located at the defunct Nakawa Housing Estate in Kampala. The government had initially allocated the said land to the NLU, but later re-allocated it to the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) that is currently constructing an ultra-modern Aga Khan University Hospital.

“Efforts to re-possess the land have yielded no results,” Mr Katungisa laments.

In an August 22 response to the ULIA petition, the MoGLSD notes several issues raised regarding ULIA’s support for the NLU.  

“The purpose of this letter is to relay your concerns and request that you await on the outcomes of the rationalisation process, and as guided by the Ministry of Public Service,” Mr Bernard Mujuni, the commissioner of equity and rights at MoGLSD, wrote.

Mr Ekwaro, however, told Saturday Monitor that Mr Mujuni’s “letter doesn’t solve any matter.” They have therefore been left with little choice but to “proceed to higher authorities.”