Ministers to explain government work during manifesto week - Bashaasha

KAMPALA.

The director of the manifesto implementation unit in the Office of the President Mr Willis Bashaasha has said that ministries overseeing flagship programs will, starting today explain to the public what government has achieved since President Museveni’s fifth term started last year.

In an interview with Daily Monitor, Mr Bashaasha said that district leaders, focal persons and ministers among others will on different days account for what has been done or not and give reasons, as a form of accountability to the public.

Mr Bashaasha however gave a snippet  of what has been done, saying that following a strategic guideline by the president on zero tolerance on corruption, government through various accountability enforcement agencies has strengthened its surveillance, arrests and prosecution of public officials involved in embezzlement and soliciting for bribes from members of the public. 

Mr Bashaasha also said that between June and December 2016, 1,225 projects were supported under the youth livelihood programme in a bid to fight poverty among the young people.

He explained that the above figure only covers a half year period, stating that a lot more things are happening. 

“The manifesto implementation week will bring together different MDAs (Ministries, Department and Agencies of government) to tell the public through the media where we are in terms of translating manifesto promises into service delivery programmes,” said Mr Bashaasha.

The manifesto week coincides with the period President Museveni was sworn in for his fifth elective term. Mr Bashaasha explained that they don’t want to wait for the next election to explain to the people what has been done.

“This is against the background that when a government’s mandate is renewed, they don’t report back to the people until the next election. We want to make it periodic so that the citizens keep informed so that we also get feedback,” Mr Bashaasha said.

Minister speaks out

While launching the NRM manifesto implementation week, at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Friday Esther Mbayo, the Minister for Presidency said that government has made progress on its promises.

Ms Mbayo however noted that there are still challenges of corruption by some public officials among different MDAs.

“The NRM has made tremendous progress. There has been effective service delivery through improvement on the infrastructure among other areas that directly impact on development,” Ms Mbayo said.