President Museveni on Monday assented to 15 Rapex Acts. PHOTO | FILE
The Ministry of Public Service has confirmed the list of the ministries, agencies, and departments (MDAs) that have thus far been rationalised since the start of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024/2025.
Close to 20 agencies have been affected by the Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (Rapex) since July 1 per the ministry.
“In line with the government directive, the implementation of structures under Rapex began on July 1, 2024, therefore, all the institutions affected should take note and prepare towards this target. The same timelines apply to directors in accordance with the directives of Cabinet accordingly,” Catherine Bitarakwate, the Public Service ministry’s permanent secretary (PS), said at a media briefing on Friday.
Under the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) has been merged with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). In the Ministry of Public Service, the National Records and Archives Centre law has been assented to and duly removed.
Elsewhere, in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), councils, including the National Youth Council, National Women Council, National Children’s Authority, National Council for Disability, and the National Council for Older Persons, are being merged under one secretariat.
According to Ms Bitarakwate, only “the political bodies of those councils which are elected councils remain, but the administrative functions that were under their secretariats now form one secretariat”. She also further disclosed that the “National Children’s Authority goes as a department into the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development”.
In a telephone interview with Sunday Monitor, Jacob Eyeru, the chairperson of the National Youth Council, said the merger of the Youth Council under the same umbrella is going to cause more confusion.
“First of all, we don’t know how we are going to work with a merged secretariat. It’s going to cause a lot of mayhem because the different entities have different interests and, therefore, we are going to compete for attention,” he observed.
Mr Eyeru reckons the implementation phase is where they will see that “the whole idea doesn’t work before calling for the abandonment of the whole idea”.
In other confirmed mergers, under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, the Uganda Warehouse Receipts System Authority has been subsumed under its mother ministry.
Elsewhere, the Uganda Free Zones Authority and the National Physical Planning Board have been merged and sent back to the National Planning Authority (NPA) under the Finance ministry.
Ms Amanda Ngabirano, the board chairperson of the merged National Physical Planning Board, welcomed the merger with cautious optimism.
She said: “Wherever the function goes it doesn’t matter as long as the budgeting is catered for, as long as the staffing is catered for, and we have the personnel, we have the direction and the willingness of the other key stakeholders to support us to deliver.”
Ms Ngabirano further offered: “If it goes to NPA and it disappears as a function that would be very unfortunate, but so far we even held discussions […] it seems the future is brighter with the merger.”
Changes galore
In July 2020, the National Physical Planning Board was sworn in with a primary role of advising the government on matters related to physical planning and urban development, including physical planning policies and standards. Under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ms Bitarakwate said the registration function, which was being held under the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), has been moved to the National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira).
“So, Uganda Registration Services Bureau remains only registering entities, companies; and not persons. So that function goes to Nira which also handles National Identity Cards and the bureau for Non-Governmental Organisations becomes part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” she added.
Another mandate extended to the Nira is the registration function under the National Citizenship and Immigration Control.
Under the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the NPA takes up two other organisations—the National Population Council and the National Physical Planning Board.
Others are the Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) under the Ministry of Water and Environment, which has now become a department under the same ministry.
Under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council (UTCC) and the Agricultural Chemicals Board (ACB) have been subsumed into their mother ministry.
In the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ms Bitarakwate revealed that the Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB) has become a secretariat under the same ministry; National Library of Uganda and Uganda National Commission for Unesco have become part of the same ministry of Education.
Speaking at the same media briefing, Ms Mary Mugasa, the junior Public Service minister, said the agencies whose Acts were amended have been advised to extend contracts of staff for three months up to September 30.
“During this period, the responsible officers will be ensuring that all staff take their outstanding leave of which failure will mean they will have forfeit the directives,” she said.
Likewise, the agencies whose bills are pending legislation, have been advised to extend the contracts of staff for six months up to December 30, 2024.
On the implementation of the audit recommendations that arose from the special payroll audit and validation of public officers and pensioners by the Auditor General, minister Mugasa said 7,586 staff have been deleted from the government payroll since March.
This is part of the 34,471 public officers validated where more than 1,500 have been cleared and restored on the payroll.
