By Mulengera Reporters
Depending on who you ask, Makerere Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe is perceived and appreciated differently by different actors. To students, staff, Muasa members and human rights activists, he is an intolerant brutal dictator who doesn’t deserve to lead a 21st century University anywhere.
They would describe him so because of he has taken no prisoners in his efforts to pacify the country’s Premier University with the overall aim to make it strike-free. This has alienated the eminent scientist from Busia from many people but has made him a darling to the President and line Minister Janet Museveni who have always been uncomfortable having a strike-prone Makerere ever setting bad example for others.
But away from the dictatorship and gagging of dons with dissenting views, the Nawangwe-led Makerere has become a better place in a number of ways and thereby creating efficiency and improving service delivery. True some of the things began way back before he even became VC but his leadership has accelerated implementation.
The decentralization of service delivery, through the College System, began way before he became VC but the model has increasingly been perfected during his tenure. Decentralization has expedited service delivery especially when it comes to the management of exams whose mishandling was always leading to delay in getting transcripts for students after graduation. At some point in the past, people took as many as 5 years or more before getting their transcripts.
Exam results for every faculty and department had to be sent to the center and these are tens of thousands of scripts. The center would go through everything before approving the marks awarded whereafter Senate would be brought in to authorize the printing of transcripts. Students would graduate and fail to get employed or even admitted abroad for graduate studies due to absence of transcripts certifying they completed Bachelor’s degree.
The enhanced efficiency these days makes it possible for students to get their transcripts even before graduation. Of all the Colleges, the one of law is among the most reformed especially under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Mbaziira, a progressive Professor who has insisted on inclusiveness getting everybody participate in the decision making.
In place is a College academic committee that is mandated to receive results from the departmental committees. And in Senate is a subcommittee which approves everything awaiting formal authorization by the entire Senate for transcripts to be printed in the UK.
Financial management has also improved with students, who used to collapse in long queues when all fees had to be paid through Stanbic Bank Makerere branch only, these days being able to pay from anywhere in the country. There are now more banks authorized to operate collection accounts on behalf of the University. Once collected, the funds are transferred immediately to the operational account in Stanbic Bank.
The larger point is students don’t have to lose time congregating at Stanbic Bank whose Makerere branch was actually the only one permitted to collect tuition. These days you can pay even in a branch upcountry and within 10 minutes get a text message notification on your phone confirming the University has safely received and receipted your tuition.
This efficiency is going to even improve because URA, which is taking over collections effective this Semester, has collection accounts in even more banks than Makerere previously operated. This is all good as students take less time getting to pay, an indicator of improved efficiency.
The payment of salaries too has greatly been enhanced. Staff, who had been used to getting salary after 15th of the following month, these days are paid by 25th of the same month. This waiting up to 15th of the subsequent month was prevalent as recent as Nawangwe’s predecessor Prof Ddumba Sentamu’s time.
To achieve this payroll efficiency, the Nawangwe administration set high targets for staff employed on the payroll processing who must complete and pass on everything to the HR Director by 5th of that very month. All this is directly supervised by Deputy US Yusuf Kiranda. Payroll preparation involves removing people who have retired or left University service for one reason or another. Some could have died or have been promoted and their remuneration needs to be revised up words.
Mind you, its payroll of over 3,200 employees to whom anything (warranting payroll adjustments) can happen anytime. It’s actually the 3rd largest payroll in the country after the one of UPDF and Police. The vastness of the Nawangwe payroll is also seen in the fact that Makerere is among the top 30 payers of PAYE to URA.
Growing automation and integration of the ICTs has also led to efficiency in admission of students. You no longer have to languish in the lines at Senate House waiting to understand whether you have been admitted or not. No more manual data entry is required on admission forms; everything has been digitalized. In the past freshers/students, reported for Semester without admission letters as the bureaucracy and human interaction bred even corruption. Even payment of admission-related fees has been decentralized with more payment options since more banks are involved.
THE LIB FACILITIES
Library facilities are more adequate than 5 years ago making it easier for one to be a student at Makerere. There was a time (not very long ago) when students used to flex muscles fighting for chairs in the Makerere main library. If you went for a short call you were sure somebody, who had been reading while standing somewhere in the corridors, was going to steal your chair.
That clearly is a thing of the past. There are enough seats for everyone: because the main library has been expanded and supplemented by College-based libraries and book banks including the one of Albert Cook for medical students which has been expanded and re-equipped.
Inadequate lecture spaces, which in the past caused students to study on loud speakers through the windows, is not a problem anymore. The Nawangwe administration has been blessed with the coming on board of 2 huge lecture space buildings aka Central Teaching Facilities (CTFs). One is at Faculty of Social Sciences and another at what used to be FEMA/COBAMS. These have ensured there are sitting spaces for everyone. These are actually shared spaces; sitting tens of thousands of students at ago. They were built under the funding support of AfDB.
THE OTHER AGENCIES
Yet this transformation in service delivery, making life easier for the public and clients, hasn’t only been experienced at Makerere. Many other government entities have changed including Works Ministry-supervised Face Technologies where citizens get driving permits from. Years ago, people collapsed in long queues and that inefficiency bred corruption making the public hate the entire process. People waited for years just to get new permit or even renewal which is no longer the case.
It took public-spirited influential personalities like Omugagga Kamagu (aka Richard Kasule), who used his hugely popular Simbula program on Top Radio to call for a public demonstration against the top management at Kyambogo, for things to gradually improve.
Moses Kamabare’s National Medical Stores in Entebbe has also leveraged on ICTs (including some of the NITA-enabled platforms) to improve efficiency in the way medicines are delivered to hundreds of public medical facilities across the country. The system ensures inclusiveness as all stakeholders can electronically track and participate in the monitoring of transportation, delivery, storage and giving out of the medicines which NMS trucks deliver on a weekly basis access the country.
This transparency has made it hard for rogue-minded managers of public facilities to steal government medicines which are even embossed. Kamabare has opened up like never before encouraging all leaders and stakeholders to regularly visit NMS headquarters Entebbe to deepen their understanding of what exactly happens there.
COURT OF APPEAL
This is another aspect of government service delivery that has greatly improved clearly illustrating that there doesn’t have to be a new President first for things to improve for the citizens. On becoming Deputy CJ (and therefore head of Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court), Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo delegated the administrative function to Justice Kenneth Kakuru who whipped fellow judges so well to ensure delivery of judgments isn’t delayed like had become the norm during Justice Stephen Kavuma’s days. Renowned for being one fascinated by computers, Kakuru has leveraged on ICTs to ensure clerks come on time and get punished for sitting on litigants’ files in order to extort “kitu kidogo” from them.
Reporting time is 8am and departure time is strictly 5pm. Everyone working at Court of Appeal these days has clear targets meaning it’s no longer enough to just indicate “I came and sat in office on time as required.” You must corroborate that attendance with verifiable results and outputs. Court users are happy you these days don’t have to know anyone in the registry to get your file acted upon as expeditiously as required. It’s hard not to perform because service delivery systems at the court are increasingly becoming automated.
This has impacted at two levels including resulting into an average of 15 judgments being delivered every week. Kakuru’s deliberate efforts have also enabled DCJ Dollo to concentrate on more strategic things as head of Court. Lawyers now have hope that the bad name the very contradicting election appeals decisions had given that all-important court will gradually be erased if Kakuru’s reforms are permitted to be consolidated into the future.
“With the Dollo-Kakuru combination, there can only be improved service delivery and efficiency from that court and it’s our hope other levels of the Judiciary take cue and replicate the best practices being experienced at that court,” a city lawyer recently told Mulengera News. Lawyers hope the recently published new Practice Directions which are very stringent on things like adjournments, holding brief, insistence on written submissions and amendment of Judicial Review rules will all combine to create more client satisfaction not only at the Court of Appeal but other levels of the Judiciary.
Credit for that goes to CJ Bart Katurebe who (by law) is mandated to liaise with the Rules Committee to produce such Practice Directions from time to time. Closely related is the Uganda Law Society in which Ugandans are growing more confident because of the prudent leadership Peter Kinobe has ushered in. He is relevantly outspoken often coming out to guide the country on legally very contested public conversations. And as we saw in the UTL case, his opinions have largely been accepted and praised for the clarity with which he communicates.
Justice Benjamin Kabito’s JSC too has greatly improved. They have relocated from the old dilapidated Farmers House along Parliamentary Avenue to a more corporate setting along MacKinnon Road in Nakasero. We spoke to several stakeholders like lawyers who said (notwithstanding our usual Ugandan imperfections), the JSC has greatly improved under Justice Benjamin Kabito who some initially doubted claiming he was too much of a Museveni cadre.
Growing trust manifested early this week when leading opposition party FDC said they would only have trust in Electoral Commission ahead of 2021 if the JSC was allowed to spearhead and oversee the recruitment of Commissioners by vetting and passing on names to the President for formal appointment. This was part of the 11 proposals FDC publicist John Kikonyogo read out to the press on Monday as part of their alternative to the electoral reforms that AG William Byaruhanga tabled in Parliament.
Whereas one lawyer said to understand the progress Kabito has made, one has to reflect on the backlog of complaints (stretching in 1000s) Kabito’s more public-favored predecessor the amiable (ever globe-trotting) Justice James Ogoola left at JSC, another advocate claimed corruption and bribe-solicitation at JSC has greatly diminished partly because there are now more lady Commissioners than ever before.
These are Ruth Sebatindira, Norah Matovu and ex-MPs Mary Nyakikongoro and former senior Minister Christine Amongin Aporu. “But you can’t discount the role the overall Chairperson’s impeccable integrity plays in setting high integrity standards for those working under him,” another lawyer explained in reference to the high standards Kabito (an executive MBA holder from EASAMI) has set for those serving under him.
Many lawyers now feel the process to appoint new judges is these days more expeditious and conducted in a manner that inspires more public confidence than ever before. This could be because the President has extended more good will towards Justice Kabito than his predecessor Ogoola with whom he had a love-hate relationship given his occasional outbursts against the excesses of the Ugandan state.
Deepening public confidence in the JSC is extremely important in a country like ours where out of every 100 disputes/ cases supposed to be referred to court for adjudication, only 5% are referred simply because people don’t trust the court system. This is a finding by the Ugandan Judiciary itself! Justice Kabito therefore deserves kudos for moving in the right direction.
THE URSB EXPERIENCE
Notwithstanding UTL quarrels with Evelyn Anite, the Twebaze Bemanya-led URSB is another hugely changed public entity to the tremendous satisfaction of the public and their general clientele. Government too must be satisfied because revenue generation and collection has also greatly been enhanced with Bemanya always exceeding his set targets by several billions.
NKATA’S UMI
Jinja Road-based Uganda Management Institute (UMI) has always been a nice place but a lot has changed and service delivery greatly improved (including decentralizing to upcountry centers & recently winning the ICAPA accreditation) under vastly experienced Dr. James Nkata, a much-revered educationist who previously worked with Makerere’s graduate education Directorate. Through monthly policy dialogue series, the Institute has also become very outspoken in public policy formulation.
MULYAGONJA’S IG
It’s not yet Uhuru at the Inspectorate of Government (if we are to reference on what the President has previously been telling the public) but the truth is that IGG Irene Mulyagonja (being the strong-willed judge she is) has tried to do things aimed at changing the negative public perception towards the Inspectorate. She has led by example because even her most vocal critics can’t come out to say she is corrupt, solicited or received a bribe from so and so.
Those who know say she would have achieved much more especially against the so-called big fish if powerfully-placed politicians would let her be without unnecessary interference. She for instance had correctly sensed there was a problem at Bank of Uganda but was politically stopped as she moved to commence investigations. Her peers from other countries greatly respect her compared to what they thought of some of her predecessors.
And yet there is much more that has been done and accomplished amidst severe financial constraints and political interference. The IG Publicist Ali Munira says the online declaration of wealth has greatly simplified life for leaders the Leadership Code requires to make annual declarations of wealth, assets and liabilities. They no longer have to personally come to the IPS Building to return filled forms.
One can sit wherever they are and make their submission. Internet access is all one requires. There has been improved backlog management (Munira says by over 70%) and investigations these days move faster because automation has ensured staff manning IG offices upcountry don’t have to drive to Kampala to physically deliver received complaints and seek Mulyagonja’s authorization to commence investigations. They only communicate online enabling the IGG to electronically guide on how to proceed with the complaint. In the past they had to physically drive to Kampala; costing both time and money.
To overcome public concern that investigations into big cases where deliberately slow, Mulyagonja spearheaded the creation of a Special Directorate to exclusively handle high profile cases. Munira also rightly says Mulyagonja’s is the first time the IG has been fully constituted with two Deputies as required by the Constitution. This has enabled many would-be blocked corruption cases to be successfully prosecuted at the Kololo-based Anti-corruption Division of the High Court.
BYABASHAIJA’S PRISONS
Uganda Prisons Service is another tremendously changed agency of government in the recent past. There are things one could casually dismiss as trivial yet they take a lot of effort to accomplish. Official reason being lack of funding, the prisons services had humiliatingly for long endured having one uniform for both prisoners and officers of UPS. But today officers have four different sets of uniforms each; meant for different settings. For instance, what they put on for functions where the President is in attendance is deliberately different from what does for other functions. This looks petty and trivial but very important for the prestige and emotional motivation of men and women serving under UPS. They had been condemned to one set of uniform since the early 1970s.
The state of infrastructure has greatly improved under CGP Dr. Johnson Byabashaija’s leadership with former uniports being spectacularly transformed into state of art infrastructure. This is evident at Ibuga prison in Kasese, Orom in Kitgum and Patongo in Northern Uganda.
Yet that isn’t all. For the first time in the history of UPS, the largest maximum security prison is being constructed in Mityana at a place called Kitaliya; just 40kms out of the Municipality. It will house 2,000 inmates at a time compared to Luzira meant to only hold 600 at a time.
Built on 100% GoU money, the multi-billion construction is being undertaken by Ambitious Construction and the President might drive to Mityana to inaugurate the larger than life facility in October or November this very year. Work began three years ago and had to be gradual because of budget constraints. This is beneficial to the country because inmates will live in more humane and more befitting facilities.
In the past prisoners used to be carried to court on Lorries exposing them to wind, rain, sunshine and consequently airborne infections. This remained the case in some parts of the country until last year. This no longer happens because the leadership deliberately invested in purchase of buses and this is a large logistical operation because prisoners are daily being carried to and from court across the country.
The Prisons has also progressed on the human rights front. Yes, prisoners still dig but the much-condemned practice of caning them (generally administering corporal punishment) has been abolished and no longer in practice. The digging is a win-win situation both for the inmates and the UPS as an institution. And here is how; a fraction of the money paid by whoever hires them goes to each individual inmate. Some accumulate cash that way and are able to gradually pay school fees for their children back home.
Engagement in commercial agricultural activities has been expanded turning into a major income generation source for the inadequately-funded UPS. Today UPS is the largest single producer of cotton because Byabashaija has leveraged on the vast prisons land to ensure over 7,000 hectares is brought under cotton cultivation. This is scattered in Kasese, Lira, Kitgum and West Nile. UPS now is the major supplier of cotton to cotton ginneries in Uganda. And this brings in significant money for the UPS.
There is also plenty of maize production leveraging on the prisons vast land in Kabarole, Gulu and Kitgum. The maize Mills at Kiburara, Lugore, Gulu and Isimba in Masindi are being used to process the maize into flour and this is why close to 70% of the prisons feeding needs are met using this internally-produced maize.
Also, in place are heavy tractors and the state of art storage facilities. The Agricultural Ministry gladly observes that that the UPS maize seed brand isn’t only produced in commercially viable quantities but is also certified as the best quality in Uganda. This explains the vastness of its market. And being able to annually meet 70% of the feeding needs for over 54,000 prisoners speaks volumes about the vastness of the UPS’ maize producing operations.
OCHAN’S PUBLIC SERVICE
Public Service Commission (PSC), a constitutional body charged with recruitment all employees for government Ministries, has also registered tremendous improvements in the way they serve the public. There is less hassle for those applying for especially entry job positions which always attract tens of thousands. It’s not uncommon for 100 jobs to attract 50,000 applicants.
In the past applicants suffered having to travel to PSC headquarters in Kampala to know if they have been shortlisted but these days automation has made life a bit easier. Forms can be accessed and filled electronically. Written applications have been phased out lessening human contact that always breeds corruption and bribe-solicitation. Shortlisting too is done online and successful applicants get updated on line and through text messages coming onto their phones.
Even aptitude for those shortlisted is these days done in one central place which is Makerere campus whose huge computer labs are hired to sit thousands of the applicants who answer questions online taking much shorter time and costing much less cash for government. In the past the young people were required to flock more expensive Namboole and Didi’s World in Kansanga which is no longer a requirement. Each session would cost PSC over Shs200m which today has been significantly diminished because of automation.
The automated system was cheaply developed and supplied by a young man called John Bosco Acala. Automation has ensured the integrity of the recruitment process as it’s simply not possible for humans to get access and distort the results in favor or against some candidates.
Under the leadership of Justice Raphael Ochan, the PSC has also lately been very outspoken assertively insisting on looking into past dubious recruitment decisions at for example KCCA. They strongly put their foot on the ground objecting to dubious recruitments even when Jennifer Musisi was still powerfully serving as ED for KCCA. They for instance wrote letters objecting to the appointment of Robert Kalumba at a time he was the personal PA and spokesman for powerful Jennifer Musisi. Their contention was the man didn’t have a proper honors degree that is required as the minimum for recruitment for any public service job. Musisi had to retain him on short term contracts of merely four months which she kept renewing from time to time.
MUHAKANIZI’ FINANCE
The Finance Ministry has equally changed and feedback from those who have regularly been there lately is that the place has become so corporate one would be excused thinking it’s not part of the same government whose other Ministries are manned by employees and managers who don’t recognize the duty to serve the public with a smile and courtesy. PSST Keith Muhakanizi says this attitude change is deliberate, it’s something they have invested in (with a change management unit being put in place) and the idea is for other Ministries to gradually be prompted and facilitated to follow suit.
TURAMYE’S PPDA
PPDA has also improved when it comes to registration of pre-qualified service providers permitted to do business with government. These have to be put onto a register from which procurement & disposal entities (PDEs) are free to pick service providers through selective bidding. In the past many would-be strong bidders missed out on good deals because the pre-qualification certificate would take 5 days to be produced but these days one gets it in 1 day.
The same day you apply is the same day PPDA teams will verify your requirements and compliance levels and issue you the certificate there and then. This has been enabled largely by deliberate efforts to automate the systems. It’s a verification on the firm’s tax compliance, URSB registration, past criminal record and other breaches etc.
This pre-qualification requirement is common in cases where PDEs choose to use selective bidding as a method of procurement. It’s expected even the complaints mechanism (for the dissatisfied bidders) will improve once the necessary amendments are done to the law to shorten the statutory time lines. Even in absence of a substantive ED, work has been done with more procurement audits being undertaken and capacity building being undertaken for the PDEs.
Regular audit coverage of the PDEs has resulted into satisfactory procurements growing from mere 48% of a few years ago to the current 70%. This is important because all these procurements undertaken by the more than 372 PDEs that PPDA supervises is meant to enhance service delivery.
THE NITA STORY
James Saka-led National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) is another tremendously changed public entity with increased positive visibility and public appreciation of its mandate. They are at the center of harnessing online service delivery by government agencies under something broadly called e-government services system. Through the NBI extension, NITA has enabled many more entities to have access to fast and affordable internet services.
NITA is also at the center of ensuring adequate ICT-enabling legislation is in place (including Computer Misuse Act, Electronic Transactions Act, Electronic Signatures Act and Data/Privacy Act). These cyber laws are very important as they inspire investor confidence and raise Uganda’s levels of compliance to international best practices. These cyber laws also ensure information security for internet users-both government and non-state actors.
The e-government services delivery they have enabled has rotated around the government payment gateway, sms gateway enabling all government MDAs to reach their clients through messaging and eGP that is being piloted to 100% automate all government procurement processes. The idea is to enhance efficiency and diminish procurement corruption.
The eGP project is housed in PPDA and funded by World Bank through NITA. The others include u-mail currently being piloted among 13 MDAs/aimed at creating uniformity in government email communications and secure the same against hacks; integration of government systems and cloud which aims at enhancing security for government data belonging to different MDAs. This was launched by the President in Jinja recently and the idea is to have one major server for the safe storage of all government data.
It’s cheaper that way as the NITA cloud will cut expenses since different MDAs won’t have to spend on such servers yet their data will be centrally secured and adequately backed up in case anything happens to the main server.
More specifically, NITA has coordinated WB funding into the provision of e-services by the different MDAs especially for the hard to reach areas. NITA also renders the same MDAs technical support besides developing systems for them. NITA is also charged with ensuring MDAs have internet connectivity on top of extending the NBI infrastructure and ensuring there is access. Their well trained and dedicated cyber security experts ensure MDAs have the most secure E-Systems that can never be hacked. It’s because of NITA still that government now boasts of data recovery sites just in case something happens on the known government servers.
The extent to which Ugandan MDA systems are cyber-secure was sometime back validated by a reputable rating agency based in Estonia that graded NITA Uganda to be Africa’s most efficient IT Authority when it comes to ensuring cyber security. Under the component of technical support, NITA has dedicated IT personnel who are instantly dispatched to ensure continued internet access and connectivity in case any MDA gets an emergency and their IT person is away. This could be a lady being away for her maternity leave.
NITA has dedicated officers who are dispatched to stand in during such difficult periods. Notwithstanding manpower gaps, NITA also undertakes basic training for MDAs staff and employees who might have difficulties effectively using the e-services systems to serve the public. NITA also supports MDAs when developing IT strategies and in analyzing business processes.
NITA OFFICIALS EXPLAIN
It’s to NITA that all difficulties in usage of the e-services system are reported and to ensure instant response, NITA recently created a service desk whose managers are tasked with instant response to such IT-distressed MDAs. And Rowena Turinawe, who is Manager Business Transformation at NITA, gratefully observes that all the relationship managers manning the service desk are young below 35. They are treasured for being energetic, ambitious and very enthusiastic towards their work.
Turinawe says they make monthly visits to the MDAs to ensure systems are working well. All this support services is at no cost because NITA would be doing its mandate. And this support is available to the more than 429 MDAs that are currently served on the NBI. These include both central government entities and LGs upcountry.
Angela Ndagano, a Communications Manager at NITA, explains that through bulk purchasing, NITA has also significantly contributed to the bringing down of the cost of internet. Purchasing for more than 420 MDAs connected to its NBI, NITA was able to purchase for the entire government by signing a 10-year service provision agreement obliging CYCOM to ensure there is sufficient internet for the entire government at heavily discounted rates. These more than 420 entities include central government MDAs, LGs/districts upcountry, health centers and academic institutions spread across the country.
With technical support (and sometimes funding) of NITA, a number of e-services continue to be offered to citizens in a manner that enhances efficient service delivery. These include e-visas by Immigration; e- business registration by UIA/URSB; Smart Care by NMS; e-citie system by KCCA; online verification/licensing of pharmacies by regulator NDA; IFMIS by the Finance Ministry; automated fees payment at public Universities; e-citizens portal and online wealth declaration by the Inspectorate of Government.
NITA has also motivated delivery and use of e-services systems by annually organizing e-government awards, a high-profile ceremony during which the most compliant officials and entities (when it comes to popularizing e-services) are publicly recognized and prized to motivate others.
THE NAGRIC STORY
Entebbe-based NAGRIC is another rapidly changed government entity and all this transformation, that was publicly noticed and commended by Premier Ruhakana Rugunda during a recent visit, has been enabled by the recruitment of a young scientist called Dr. Charles Lagul, a PhD-holding Makerere vet graduate from West Nile. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
