NRM legislators agree to back merger of govt agencies

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Parliamentary Caucus has unanimously resolved to back the earlier rejected omnibus Bill on the rationalisation of government agencies.

According to the resolution from the Friday caucus meeting with President Museveni, who also doubles as the party chairman at State House, Entebbe, it was agreed that the ruling party MPs should support the enactment of the legislation in Parliament.

In November last year, Parliament rejected the Rationalisation of Government Agencies (Repeals and Amendments), Bill, 2023, and Speaker Anita Among advised the government to table separate bills.

However, the government Chief Whip, Mr Hamson Obua, noted that after an interaction with the President and the Minister of Public Service, the ruling party MPs reached a unanimous consensus to support the re-enactment of the Bill.

“We the members of the NRM Parliamentary Caucus, conscious of the strategic subject of rationalisation of government agencies, having received, internalised, and exhaustively discussed the keynote address of the President…hereby resolve to support the rationalisation of government agencies and public expenditure through enactment of legislation in Parliament, sector by sector,” Mr Obua said in statement.

Last year’s rejected Bill suggested that at least 33 government agencies be returned to their mother ministries or be scrapped as a long-term solution to the current huge cost of administration.

However, legislators reasoned that the Omnibus Bill was unnecessary since all the affected entities were created by different acts of parliament and scrutinized by different sectoral committees of Parliament.

When contacted, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, explained that although the Cabinet is to present an omnibus Bill, respective parliamentary committees will issue independent regulations on each of the affected agencies.

“The Cabinet resolved to merge some government agencies that duplicate the work of their mother ministries to ensure efficiency but also to cut the cost of administration. Government shall present an omnibus bill but it will be segmented by the committees to tackle each of the affected agencies,” he said.

Monitor has learnt that, among others, the government plans to merge the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) with the Uganda Human Rights Commission while the Uganda Coffee Development Authority and the Dairy Development Authority are to be returned to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

Other agencies to be affected include; The National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U), the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) and the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA).

Through a statement posted on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Saturday, President Museveni noted that the actualisation of the merger process will cut the government’s operation costs by at least Shs1 trillion, annually.

What they say
Erias Lukwago, Lord Mayor.: “Rationalisation shouldn’t be restricted to agencies only but ought to be done holistically, starting with the bloated Cabinet, huge Parliament, presidential advisers etc. For Kampala, the whole system should be restructured to phase out the redundant Ministry of Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs, among others.”