Museveni signs 15 laws to actualise govt mergers

The Acts assented to include the National Youth Council (Amendment) Act 2024, the Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Act 2024, the National Women’s Council (Amendment) Act 2024, and the National Council for Older Persons (Amendment) Act 2024. 

The secretariats of the councils are to be merged into one unit, the National Secretariat for Special Interest Groups, under the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development.

Mr Museveni also assented to the National Planning Authority (Amendment) Act 2024, the National Population Council (Repeal) Act 2024, and the Physical Planning (Amendment) Act 2024, transferring the roles of the latter two to the NPA; The Registration of Persons (Amendment) Act 2024, Uganda Registration Services Bureau (Amendment) Act 2024, and National Identification and Registration Authority (Amendment) Act delineating the civil registration functions performed by NIRA and URSB, by ensuring that NIRA registers and performs all civil registration functions relating to natural persons in Uganda (from birth, through marriage, to the death of an individual), while URSB performs the civil registration functions about juridical persons and non-incorporated entities.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (Amendment) Act and The Uganda Wildlife Education Centre Amendment Act, merges the two entities; while the Non-Governmental Organisations (Amendment) Act 2024 has dissolved the  NGO Board and its functions returned to the Internal Affairs Ministry.
The other laws include the National Library Amendment Act, the Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council (Repeal) Act 2024, and the Agricultural Chemicals (Control) (Amendment) Act 2024.

The affected ministries and agencies now await issuance of statutory instruments by respective line ministers to effect the changes that will include the transfer of roles hitherto served by the dissolved or merged entities, movement of staff to line departments in the ministries, as well as laying off of some staff.  

The Minister of Finance in-charge of General Duties, Mr Henry Musasizi, said funds were budgeted to compensate those who will lose their jobs.  

“We budgeted for Rapex comprehensively. We have a block figure, of about Shs70b under the Ministry of Public Service. It caters for Rapex activities like compensation, organising structures, mainstreaming, among others,” he said.

Mixed reactions
Maj Gen David Kasura Kyomukama, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (Maaif) said: “Of course we are ready…what has been rationalised is the administrative structure, it is not the functions. The functions are going to be done by the ministry.

For example, the Agricultural Chemicals Control Board does certification and licensing. We have a department, commissioner for control and certification so the staff there is going to be rationalised into the ministry,” he said.

“The National Youth Council (NYC) has remained with its powers, functions, and everything, the only thing that has changed is the address,” Mr Jacob Eyeru, the NYC chairperson, said yesterday.

“Right now, I can say no one lost their job because although they temporarily lost them, the power to recruit has remained with us. The law does not abolish NYC as it had been designed at first,” he added.

The chairperson of the National Older Persons Council, Mr Charles Isabirye, noted: “We were not consulted when this whole thing was being crafted. Although we have remained with our functions, the mode of working has really changed and is unfair to us,” he said.

Mr Charles Oleny Ojok, the deputy executive director of the NPA, told Monitor that a comprehensive integration plan has already been put in place to ensure the authority assumes the planning duties of its two counterparts.

“We are set, we carried out a functionality analysis, and on our part, I can assure you that there is no conflict at all,” he said.

He added: “For jobs, it is the Ministry of Public Service in charge but according to the released guidelines, some members of top management will not be taken in, likewise the support staff so we shall take in some and leave others.”  

Ms Sarah Birete, the executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance, said despite their support as NGOs towards the rationalisation of agencies, the dissolving of the NGO Bureau was uncalled for.

“The NGO Bureau does not duplicate any work by any other government department, and it has a unique sector to preside over. It is the second highest employer after the private sector and contributes to income and knowledge generation in the country,” she said.

She added: “The signed NGO Amendment Act 2024 robs the sector of two key committees for fairness and transparency in the regulation of the sector, namely the NGO Board and the Arbitration Committee for fairness, conflict mitigation, and redress. Now the sector is left at the mercy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and courts of law in case of any injustice or unfairness. Our courts of law do not dispense cases in a timely manner. This will cripple the already weakened sector much more.”

Dr Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), said the dissolution is not an issue as long as the Bureau remains with its functions of licensing on time, monitoring, and holding accountable all registered NGOs.

More mergers

Last week, this publication reported that Mr Museveni had declined to accept Parliament’s decision to save some entities that had been lined up for rationalisation. Some of the entities earlier saved by Parliament include Uganda National Roads Authority, Uganda Coffee Development Authority, National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), Dairy Development Authority, Cotton Development Authority, National Forestry Authority (NFA) and the National Information Technology Authority (Nita-U).

Sources say new Bills considering some concerns raised by the legislators are being drafted to ensure the entities are returned to parent ministries.

President Museveni has since 2018 expressed full support for the mergers and held multiple meetings with NRM legislators to make a case for the process expected to save the government approximately Shs1 trillion.  Government has also argued that mergers will eliminate duplication of roles, foster budgetary discipline and result in efficient service delivery.