New agencies over stretching public resources

The minister of state for Public Service, David Karubanga, has said the mushrooming government agencies have overstretched the capacity of government to sustain public institutions and led to disparities in salaries  between their employees and traditional civil servants.

Karubanga told the press in Kampala that these resources which are wasted could be committed to providing critical public services such as health, education and infrastructure development among others.

He explained that the agencies have created functional overlaps and duplication of services.

During the process of merging these agencies, Karubanga stated that government plans to prioritise the rationalisation of salaries with the objective of resolving disparities in pay among civil servants.

"Implementation of the recommendations on rationalisation of agencies, commissions, authorities and public expenditure is a strategy to address these ambiguities,"he said.

The scope of exercise according to Karubanga, will require a critical study and analysis of the mandates, roles and functions, workload and structures of the 18 government ministries, offices, and the 97 agencies.

"The reform will also engage in developing a change management strategy to facilitate smooth transition,undertaking job evaluation aimed at harmonising pay across the service, and developing an Administrative Reform Model for government to coordinate public service reforms for the next ten years,"he said.

He noted that Shs 988 billion will be freed as a result of the implementation of the rationalisation in the short term.

"The cost saving items considered include; operational costs including rent and the development budgets. The projected cost savings are in form of freed savings due to the merger of some agencies and functions as well as mainstreaming functions of some agencies back to their line ministries,"he explained.