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Budget expert tells Museveni to start with State House in restructuring
President Yoweri Museveni
A leading voice on budget matters from the civil society has asked President Yoweri Museveni to eliminate some offices with in his office as a sign of commitment to addressing the wastage of tax payers money under the ongoing restructuring process.
Julius Mukunda, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Advocacy Group (CSBAG) urged President Museveni to scrap the Health Monitoring Desk, drug monitoring unit, the lands desk, the newly established Anti-Corruption unit adding that they should all be taken back to the parent ministries.
Mukunda added that State House is one of the biggest spenders with numerous ‘wasteful’ desks whose functions are already being performed by parallel ministries.
“Resident district commissars (RDCS) are totally doing nothing and that work can be done by the related authorities.
In addition the District Security Officers (DISO), the Gombolola Internal security officers (GISO) among others should also be scrapped,” argued Mukunda.
He added : “The government should cut back on the number of presidential advisors which has greatly increased from 98 in 2003 to approximately 141 in 2016 and each one of them is getting salary and allowances for the role they don’t even perform. Removing them will help to save some good money which can be used to fund other priorities.”
Julius Mukunda, CSBAG’s ED commenting during a recent fora by IMF on the Economic situation in S.Saharan Africa
He emphasized that for the rationalization process to be successful, government has to ensure that it is devoid of political interferences.
In a dramatic move this week the government announced it was scrapping up to 64 previously semi-autonomous agencies with the view to saving money and allocate it to other priorities.
As we reported yesterday, the decision would save at least UGX900 billion every year. However, critics say more is needed to restore public confidence in government that has become synonymous with corruption.
He noted that over the past three years starting with 2015/16, government spent UGX2.293 trillion on paying salaries, and allowances of top officials in the soon to be scrapped agencies.
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