Fight over REA jobs signals govt’s merger showdown

A  fight over jobs is simmering at Amber House following the absorption of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) back to its parent, the Ministry of Energy, as a department.
The episode offers a glimpse into a looming showdown as the government prepares to merge more agencies and authorities in the coming months.

A section of  staff  relieved of  their duties following a validation exercise to determine whom to retain, are crying foul, citing, among others, discrimination and favouritism.
“We have noted with great concern that the process of recommending a section of staff for appointment in the mainstream Public Service is biased, unfair, discriminatory, and lacked transparency,”  the aggrieved staff state in a petition addressed to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ms Irene Batebe.
The validation exercise involved, among others, cross referencing staff work experience and academic records to positions previously held.

It found that some employees held positions beyond their pay grade, others had questionable academic credentials, and some lacked supporting documents for their positions.
The Rural Electrification Agency was created 21 years ago as part of the World Bank-supported electricity reforms to handle the government’s rural electrification function under a public-private partnership.
On February 22, 2021, the Cabinet agreed to a proposal to merge, mainstream and rationalise government agencies, commissions, authorities and public enterprises to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery.
In a 2021 statutory instrument, the Cabinet decided that REA returns to Amber House, the seat of the Energy ministry. 
The ministry was then tasked to prepare a roadmap for the exercise.

The roadmap included preparing the staff mentally ahead of terminating all staff contracts early last month.  
All staff would continue receiving their employment benefits until October 18. 
REA employed about 178 people on permanent and short-term contracts, including staff on donor funded projects.
Ministry officials say the retention was undertaken following Clause 12(2) of the Instrument, which provided that all REA staff be transferred back to the ministry and their terms and conditions, including salary, subjected to the duration of the instrument in accordance with the employee’s contract of employment. 
Sources in the ministry told this publication on Monday the affected staff were mainly on short-term contracts.

Background
A Parliament ad hoc committee in its February report agreed to the proposal of merging certain agencies following duplicated mandates, overlaps among agencies, functional ambiguities depicting mix-up of policy, regulation, and implementation, unharmonised legal frameworks, and bloated structures of some agencies. The plan was first mulled over in 2018. Consequently, the Ministry of Public Service recommended to Cabinet that out of the 157 agencies reviewed, 80 should be retained as semi-autonomous agencies; 33 agencies should have their mandate and functions mainstreamed to their relevant line ministries, 35 agencies should be consolidated or merged into 19 entities. The ministry indicated that the move would save the government Shs1 trillion annually.