President Museveni has in accordance with Article 91(4) of the Constitution, signed nine bills into law.
This announcement was made by Parliament on Wednesday. The nine bills were recently passed by the Parliament.
Among the significant bills signed are The Uganda National Roads Authority (Repeal) Act, 2024, and the Uganda Road Refund (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The two bills, introduced by Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Katumba Wamala and passed by Parliament on November 6, aimed to streamline the functions of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and the Road Fund by integrating them into the Ministry of Works and Transport.
The new law dissolves both entities, which have been in operation since 2006.
The new law seeks to eliminate redundancy, reduce government spending, and enhance service delivery.
Recently, the approval of these bills raised concerns regarding potential job losses for staff members of UNRA and the Road Fund.
However, Katumba Wamala, last month justified the move to transfer the two agencies to his ministry saying the creation of the agencies was in the first place ill-advised.
"We are not going to create unemployment. We are going to validate all workers of UNRA and those willing to work under the public service arrangement are welcome." he said.
The new law will see a transition of UNRA’ portfolio of Shs9 Trillion in a bid to save the country from suffering severe losses and disruption of services.
Cotton Development Organisation (CDO), DDA and NAADS merged*
The President has also signed three bills into law: the Dairy Industry (Amendment) Act 2024, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADs) (Amendment) Act 2024, and the Cotton Development (Amendment) Act 2024.
This new law facilitates the merger of the CDO, Dairy Development Authority (DDA), and NAADS into the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries in Uganda (MAAIF)
In October, Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of Agriculture, supported these mergers, emphasising that they would reduce redundancy and help establish a more integrated and efficient agricultural system.
Worth noting is that the Cotton Development Organisation (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was among the key legislations passed during plenary on October 12, 2024.
The bill sparked debate, as some lawmakers raised concerns about its potential impact on the cotton industry. They argued that integrating the Cotton Development Organisation into the ministry could undermine the body that has kept Uganda's cotton industry afloat.
Additionally, legislators expressed worries that merging the functions of the Dairy Development Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries could hinder the effectiveness of the authority, which has played a crucial role in boosting dairy production and improving market access.
Others were concerned about the possible loss of regulatory advancements in the dairy industry.
However, Minister Tumwebaze defended the two mergers stating, “The duplication will be removed and the country will benefit from a unified strategy. The merger will also ensure that all willing technical staff from CDO are absorbed into the ministry,”
He added, Government was convinced that the Ministry of Animal Husbandry and the relevant departments under there, can ably integrate the functions of the DDA and enable Uganda make efficiency gains.
Meanwhile, the new law provides for dissolving of NAADS' functions, transferring them to the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services in MAAIF.
Centre for Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (CADER) abolished
Also passed into law is the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which was passed by Parliament to strengthen the institutional framework for dispute resolution, reduce judicial interference, and speed up arbitration
The new law facilitates the rationalisation of different agencies into the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to reduce administrative costs and improve service delivery by streamlining them and avoiding duplication of functions.
The law abolishes Centre for Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (CADER) Centre as a corporate entity and re-establish it as a department within the Justice Ministry.
Some legal practitioners had opposed the abolition of the centre, fearing the move would compromise the body’s independence.
However, Mao defended the centre abolition arguing that the proliferation of agencies, including the Centre for Arbitration, has led to mandate overlaps, jurisdictional ambiguities, and high administrative costs.
It should be noted with the new law, any member of the Council and staff of the Centre who will lose office due to the abolition of the centre shall be paid their terminal benefits. However, no compensation will not be payable to any member of the Council for loss of office.
The new law also provides a creation of a model arbitration agreement that parties can incorporate into their agreements.
It also provides for disclosure of pending proceedings, meaning applicants must disclose the number of pending arbitration proceedings and awards passed in disputes between the parties Council and fee regulations.
HESFB merged
Museveni has also signed into law the Higher Education Students’ Financing (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which was one one of the two bills reconsidered and passed by Parliament in September after being returned by the President in July 2024.
The new law provides for mainstreaming functions of the Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) into the Ministry of Education and Sports, in order to give effect to government policy on rationalisation.
The law further provides that staff of the now merged HESFB will be retired and compensated on abolition of office.
Furthermore, Museveni assented to the The National Commission for UNESCO (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which renders the commission from being a department of the Ministry of Education and Sports.
NITA-U moved to Ministry of ICT
The President has also signed the The National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (Amendment) Act, 2024, paving way for the mainstreaming of NITA-U into the Ministry of Information, Communication Technology (ICT) and National Guidance.
The transition is to take take effect after three years to give time to government to effectively implement two major projects aimed at enhancing digital transformation.
Through NITA-U, government is implementing the Uganda Digital Acceleration Project-Government network worth US$200 million with loan support from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.
The authority is also implementing a four year National Backbone Infrastructure Phase V Project financed by the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of China at a cost of over US$150 million.
The President's signing of the bills into laws comes after months of concerns over Governments' readiness to pay terminal benefits to the affected staff of the rationalised agencies. duri
However, the Minister of Public Service, Wilson Muruli Mukasa, recently assured that for all government entities that will have been rationalised, termination benefits have been prepared and that staff will be able to leave with their packages.
Below is a summarised list of the signed bills;
The National Commission for UNESCO (Amendment) Act, 2024,
The Higher Education Students Financing (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The Uganda Road Refund (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The Uganda National Roads Authority (Repeal) Act, 2024.
The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (Amendment) Act, 2024.
Dairy Industry (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The National Agricultural Advisory Services (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The Cotton Development (Amendment) Act, 2024.
