Rationalisation should start from State House – Ssenyonyi

Mr Ssenyonyi says the units in the State House are duplicating the roles of the ministries.

The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, has asked President Museveni to disband or merge all the units he created in State House if the government rationalisation policy is to achieve its main objective of saving taxpayers’ money.

Speaking to journalists on November 12 for the first time since Parliament passed the controversial National Coffee Amendment Bill last week, Mr Ssenyonyi said the units in the State House are duplicating the roles of the ministries, which already have staff.

“There are several entities that have been created, which do not require a Bill in Parliament. Mr Museveni just issued a directive and they were created; these are State House Health Monitoring Unit, State House Anti-Corruption Unit, State House Investor Protection Unit, State House Revenue Collection and Operations Unit and State House Land Unit,” he said.

He added: “There is a unit on literally everything in State House, which is fully fledged with leadership, staff and budget, which we think should be disbanded; if you think IGG is not doing her work [in fighting corruption], you replace her. If you think the minister of health is not doing a good job as opposed to creating a unit, appoint a new one. Let’s send everything to the ministries.”

State House responds

In response, the Special Presidential Assistant for Press and Mobilisation, Mr Faruk Kirunda, said the Opposition is politicising the rationalisation debate.

“First of all, nobody can teach President Museveni (about) rationalisation. He is its chief architect because of his frugal, calculative and accountable leadership style. The Opposition MPs are boarding the bus late in regard to this concept which the President is championing and which they have been opposing,” Mr Kirunda said.

“And, unfortunately, they are doing so cynically and politicising it, targeted to weaken the State House and its operations,” he added.

Parliament last week passed the Bill which rationalised the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and transferred its functions to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

The Bill was passed after a chaotic session characterised by ugly scenes in the House such as fist fights, switching off lights in the chambers and the presence of plain-clothed security officers.

The energy the State deployed to have the Bill passed, Mr Ssenyonyi said, should be the same used to abolish the units, which require a simple presidential directive.

“As Opposition, we want those units disbanded and we hope the government won’t play games this time round unless the units were created to give jobs to in-laws, outlaws and all that. Even these positions of RDCs, deputy RDC and their assistants, all those for what? We want to make sure that we save taxpayers money,” he said.

However Mr Kirunda said all those units serve a special purpose, supplementing operations of mainstream structures or counter checking them.

“This ensures efficiency and saves taxpayers' money. Look at the State House Anti- Corruption Unit, for example. It has helped recover a lot of money from the corrupt and instil fear in others who would ordinarily steal taxpayers' resources. What matters about these units is the results of their work. If all agencies showed results and value-for-money, perhaps we wouldn't need rationalisation at all,” he said.

Mr Ssenyonyi also rallied farmers to continue growing coffee.

“Mr Museveni might think he took the day but I want to assure our farmers that they should continue growing the coffee because the war is on,” he said.

Barely a day after Parliament passed the Act which awaits his signature to become law, Mr Museveni hosted several experts, politicians, and coffee farmers at State House who blame UCDA for the various failings in the coffee value chain.

Mr Ssenyonyi yesterday wondered why Mr Museveni could go to such an extent of inviting only critics without listening to the accused as well.

“Now that he realised we had put up a spirited fight, he began propaganda because to say that UCDA has only been giving coffee seedlings to the Opposition, that is why they are defending it, how about colleagues in the NRM who initially were speaking in defence of UCDA? Are they also in Opposition? We would like him to substantiate,” he said.