Best, worst performing ministries named

The new details are contained in the 2015/16 Government Half Annual Performance Report launched at a Cabinet retreat in Kampala yesterday.

The assessment of the 16 sectors that constitute the annual government planning and budgeting framework of ministries, departments, agencies, districts and municipal local governments indicates that some sectors are either on track, borderline or off track relating to achieving their annual targets on key outputs.

While ministry of Finance officials who talked to Daily Monitor attributed the poor performance to corruption, late submission, vacant positions, lack of accountability and weak control systems, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda explained that some sectors performed poorly because of insufficient releases.

He singled out local governments where only 38 per cent of the Shs65.5b was released for investment in production and marketing.

In May last year, Finance minister Matia Kasaija presented a tax heavy Budget of Shs24.1 trillion for the 2015/16 Financial Year.

However, the Prime Minister told those at the two-day cabinet retreat opened by Vice President Edward Ssekandi: “We did well in infrastructure development but fell short in as far as gaining excellence in service delivery is concerned.”

He added: “There are questions we must answer during the retreat and look at where we have not delivered and why?
Although some Opposition MPs who talked to Daily Monitor called for sanctions on sector heads whose performance was not assessed, Dr Rugunda only said: “I strongly task all those sectors, ministries, agencies and local governments whose data wasn’t assessed to pull up their socks during the remaining months of service delivery.”
Attempting to explain the cause of poor service delivery, Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rukunda, whose docket monitors government programmes, alluded to the possibility of government agencies doing the wrong things or doing the right things the wrong way.

For instance, assessment of the community-based services indicates that resource utilisation mainly focuses on interventions that hardly promote wealth creation in the communities.

This finding has prompted Dr Rugunda to direct all Local Government leaders to ensure that government resources are utilised for programmes that promote wealth creation for the people and also regularly report on their targets to his office.

President Museveni is expected to close the two-day Cabinet retreat, reminding the ministers and accounting officers about his new promises to the people.

Municipal council performance
Overall, of the Shs341b annual approved budgets for all the Municipal Councils, Shs176.26b (50 per cent) was released of which 106.9b (70 per cent) was spent.

Among the MCs with high percentage budget release are Lira (94.3 per cent), Entebbe (66 per cent), Hoima (66 per cent), Masaka (62 per cent) and Mbale (61 per cent), respectively.

MCs with high absorption include: Ntungamo, Mukono,Rukungiri, Kasese, Iganga, Busia, Bushenyi-Ishaka, Arua, Entebbe, Jinja, Mbale and Tororo; with absorption performance rate, ranging from 78 per cent to 99 per cent in the declining order, respectively.

On average, 53 indicators were assessed of which 59 per cent are likely to be achieved while 29 per cent are not unlikely to be achieved and 7 per cent of the targets were not assessed because of inadequate data. Overall, Kabale, Jinja, Rukungiri, Bushenyi, Mukono, Ntungamo, Mbale, Moroto and Masindi MCs are likely to achieve targets above the average number of indicators.

Despite of the three municipalities: Lira, Entebbe, Masaka, being among the MCs for having received high releases, they were likely to achieve low performance; Lira (23 per cent), Masaka (47 per cent) and Entebbe (48 per cent).

Methodology used
The Office of the Prime Minister draws the required data from the Output Budgeting Tool (OBT) for analysis, including checking for completeness, and where possible, accuracy, through triangulation against previous years, performance, and other sources of information.

Where constraints continue to exist in the OBT regarding the provision of detailed explanatory information, the MDAs and LGs provide supplements to the OBT detailing the reasons for good and, especially, under-performance. Subsequently, the data is analysed, tabulated, and written-up sector by sector.

The financial information required for the Report is supplied by Ministry of Finance, and is taken directly from the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) or related systems.

The financial information in this Report excludes taxes and arrears. The sector reports are then compiled into an overall national report (GHAPR) for the Prime Minister to present to Cabinet.

Best Performing Sector
• Security (82%)
• Health (76%)
• Accountability (75%)
• Justice Law and Order (71%)
• Public Administration 71%
• Energy and Mineral Development (63%)
• Public Sector Management (60%)
• Lands Housing and Urban Development (56%)
• Legislature (56%)
• Trade Tourism and Industry (51%)

Poor performers
• Social Development (33%)
• Education (34%)
• Agriculture (38%)
• Water and Environment (43%)
• ICT (44%)
• Works and Transport (48%)

Sectors with insufficient data
• Agriculture (16%)
• Water and Environment (5%)
• Social Development (34%)
• Public Sector Management (11%)
• Public Administration (24%)
• Legislature (11%)
• Lands Housing and Urban Development (11%),
• Justice Law Order and Order (3%),
• Information and Communication Technology (33%),
• Education (12%),
• Accountability (1%)

Best performing districts (some)
• Kabaale (97%)
• Mitooma (89%)
• Bushenyi-Ishaka (75%)
• Mukono (74%)
• Serere (74%)
• Bukedea (73%)
• Ntungamo (71%)

Poor performing districts (some)
• Bundibugyo (16%)
• Kisoro (34%)
• Zombo (35%)
• Buvuma (37%)
• Koboko (37 %)
• Bulambuli (38%)
• Kyankwanzi (38%)
• Manafwa (39%)

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