Office of the Prime Minister to be restructured, govt says

The head of the public service has asked President Museveni to appoint a courageous permanent secretary who can effect restructuring in the Office of the Prime Minister. 

Speaking at the official funeral service for the late Keith Muhakanizi in Kololo on Saturday, Ms Lucy Nakyobe, who is also the secretary to the cabinet, said if the office is not restructured, scandals will continue.

Ms Nakyobe said before Muhakanizi flew to Milan, Italy, for specialised treatment, he had anticipated a scandal about Karamoja iron sheets and warned the ministers that the iron sheets would cause them problems but they ignored him. Muhakanizi said the ministers should take personal responsibility for whatever would happen.

 “How did the iron sheets saga come out when he was the permanent secretary? He had seen the circus coming. He had been to my office a few months before it happened. One afternoon he had a top management meeting in his office and he came accusing me of not inducting ministers,” she said.

Ms Nakyobe said Muhakanizi told her that he had been with top management because the ministers were everywhere; they were in stores, procurement, accounts, and human resources.

She said Muhakanizi had gone to report himself to her and that should she hear anything, she should know that he disagreed with the ministers and he warned them.

“And indeed after a month and a half, this problem came and when it came he called me and told me didn’t I predict so? We took it lightly and thought it would come to pass I called him in Milan and told him this thing is making the government look ugly,” she said.

She said he informed her that he had warned the ministers and they should take responsibility because he has already written his statement and if he returned, he would propose the way forward but in the meantime, he called for restructuring the Office of the Prime Minister.

She said she had told him to write a cabinet white paper proposing the restructuring when he returned from Milan so that the office of the prime minister concentrates on its role of coordination and leaves out monitoring because of numerous scandals that have rocked it.

President Museveni, who was the chief mourner, said Muhakanizi’s death was a shock to him because he knew that he was undergoing cancer treatment, and not long ago, he held a meeting with him at State House and he was optimistic he had overcome cancer.

He lauded Muhakanizi for his contribution to the economic recovery of the country after the National Resistance Army took over power in 1986.

He said Muhakanizi, the late Bank of Uganda governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile and the late Chris Kasami (former permanent secretary and secretary to the treasury at the Ministry of Finance), were key in the implementation of economic reforms like merging the ministries of finance planning and economic development and allowing market forces determine the market prices for a predictable economy to increase investor confidence and introduction of liberalisation to expand and diversify the economy.

“They helped us with the structural changes resulting in minimum economic recovery which led to the end of distortions in the market like speculation where officials who had access to dollars would sell them in the black market,” he said.

The OPM structure
The Office of the Prime Minister has: 
•Prime Minister and deputy prime ministers
•10 ministers and state ministers including Government Chief Whip, minister for General Duties, Karamoja Affairs, Northern Uganda
•Three directorates
•11 departments