Gov’t Unveils 3-Year Plan to Merge Agencies, Departments

The government has unveiled a three-year plan to merge and consolidate agencies, departments and authorities in a bid to cut costs and duplication of work.  

The Minister for Information and Communication Technology-ICT, Judith Nabakooba revealed the move at a press briefing at the government-owned Uganda Media center on Tuesday.  

The government first mooted the proposal to merge its departments and agencies in 2018. It stemmed from reports indicating that many agencies were redundant, underperforming and duplicating work, yet they take chunks of money for their operations.

President Yoweri Museveni ordered a review of the public service with a view of scrapping, downsizing and merging the government agencies and Authorities to avoid wastage of the country's meagre resources. Now, Nabakooba says the government has drawn a road map for reorganizing the ministries and institutions of over three years with a view of improving service delivery.    

She says that once effected, the merger will save the Government up to Shillings 988billion and improve efficiency. According to Nabakooba, the cabinet has already adopted the proposals for the merger and consolidation of the government, agencies and departments.      

She says the government intends to constitute an Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee to manage the process, adding that government is the process of issuing a circular to the Public Service Ministry freezing the creation of new agencies and provide guidelines on a transition arrangement for staff whose contracts will be affected.  

     

The government also intends to set up a change of management implementation strategy. The staff of the affected institutions will be prepared for the changes, in addition to reviewing the legal frame of the affected agencies.

Financial implications and institutional structural framework including terms and conditions of service of the employees will be reviewed. Cabinet will receive a revised structure of the agencies and financial implication of the rationalization for approval.    

The public service will receive and validate for absorption the credentials of the employees from the affected agencies. 

“The structure will be revised and the compensation of the personnel to be off boarded will be undertaken. The salary structures for the agencies will be harmonized and mainstreamed with the Public service in accordance with the approved pay targets,” the statement issued by the minister reads. 

Some of the agencies identified for the merger are the National Council for Higher Education, National Curriculum Development Centre and the Directorate of Industrial Training. Others are Uganda Tourism Board, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, which will be mainstreamed under the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities. 

While the Insurance Regulatory Authority, Uganda Retirement Benefits Authority and Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority will be merged to create specialized directorates from non-bank supervision within the Bank of Uganda.