Entire gov't needs to be rationalised, says Treasury Secretary

Ggoobi, who is also the secretary to the treasury, says institutions like Parliament and ministries are equally bloated and need pruning.

KAMPALA | The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ramathan Ggoobi, has suggested that instead of merging only agencies, the country would be better with entire government was downsized and streamlined.

Ggoobi, who is also the secretary to the treasury, says institutions like Parliament and ministries are equally bloated and need pruning.

“It is all political economy which needs to be managed by the leaders to ensure that self-interested parties do not fail something done for the greater good,” he said.

Ggoobi made statements when asked whether government was in a rush and unprepared for the rationalization of government agencies to reduce the cost of public administration.

“Big reforms like this one are bound to have winners and losers and in this case the losers are many yet the bigger picture is that we not only need rationalisation of agencies but the entire government," he said.

"Look at the size of parliament, ministries and a lot more.”

Ggoobi says some of the mix-up in the process of rationalisation are deliberate to make the entire process look dirty and kill it.

Citing an example of people supposed to present information required to for process of having certificates of financial implication, the Treasury boss said these are not being done in a timely manner even when it is available.

The government had prepared to rationalize the institutions using an omnibus bill but parliament had asked they be broken down to individual agencies which would take forever.

It was later resolved to have them rationalised by sector.

Ggoobi, however, conceded that prior, rationalisation may not have been well presented to the parliamentarians, thus misunderstanding by some legislators.

He promised the government will work out well and structure certificates of financial implication for each agency reflecting for example the cost benefit and also look at some of the political economy issues addressed.

Parliament this week dismissed 36 of the 39 bills presented on rationalisation of government agencies upon failure to meet the standards as set under the public finance management act.