By Mulengera Reporters
A report by National Planning Authority NPA (a government think tank on long term development planning) has disclosed glaring loopholes in district level-based service delivery and called for a comprehensive review of the Decentralization System a model of governance and service delivery.
Ideally meant to take services nearer to the people, decentralization has been in force (instead of Federal some had asked for) since 1997. The NPA report, specifically aimed at addressing why the lower middle income status dream ($1,036 for every citizen) won’t be realized by 2020 as President Museveni had promised, faults the NRM government for recentralizing services that are ideally supposed to remain decentralized at the districts to empower leaders at that level.
The mandate of NPA among other things is to enforce the realization of development goals and objectives espoused in Uganda Vision 2040 through the constituent 6 national development plans (NDPs) each meant to last 5 years.
The country is now in the 4th year of NDP II which sets development targets to be accomplished through the local governments or districts as a model of service delivery. The NPA very damning report shows that whereas the number of new districts being created has been growing, the amount of money allocated to each local government has been declining.
That since the commencement of NDP II, the number of LGs (districts & Municipalities) being created has increased from 133 to 168 as of the FY2018/19. NDP II recommended 30% of the national budget every FY to be allocated to LGs but the Museveni government currently allocates an average of only 10% to the districts and Municipalities.
The NPA finding is that the LGs can simply not deliver as per the NDP II targets because of extreme under funding. That even the 10% being allocated to LGs mostly (actually 64%) goes into salaries and wages of district employees and as well as gratuity and pension arrears.
The resultant lack of operational funds is the reason the NPA categorizes the district leaders (politicians & technocrats) as the most redundant category of government employees. That they are remunerated to do work and deliver services for which they aren’t logistically enabled.
That it would be expecting too much for one to imagine any of the districts or Municipalities can miraculously deliver services with just 13% of the budget allocated to meet operational expenses of actual service delivery.
That the Shs2.5bn each LG unit gets annually is too insignificant to enable delivery of social services to the people. The development budget, fixed at Shs3.4bn or 18% per LG, is too little or dismissal to enable the district or Municipality leaders escape the redundancy that results from having a salary without being enabled to do any significant work for your people.
That the other services whose delivery would have placated district bosses from boredom and redundancy were recentralized back to Kampala to the Ministries of Education and Health. This includes the building of primary school class room blocks, toilets and purchase of furniture for the schools.
Even the building of health centers was recentralized back to the Ministry of Health further diminishing the relevance of the leaders in the district and Municipality local governments.
The report concludes by discouraging creation of new districts because that only creates wage bill problems while constraining actual service delivery.
That the same district LGs are poorly staffed especially in education and health departments. That all this is hampering the realization of NDP II outcomes.
The example of Wakiso is given as a very large district with a vast population but which has only one Inspector of Schools with hundreds of schools to cover against the world ideal of having one Inspector for every 40 schools.
In the health sector for all the 168 LGs, only 45% of the established positions are filled substantively with the required health workers and the rest (55%) are either vacant or have officers in acting capacity.
The NPA thinkers conclude by arguing it’s high time the thinking process begins as to whether Uganda still needs decentralization at all as a model of governance and service delivery. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
