ICT, Nita-U bosses clash over Shs710b World Bank project

A dispute has broken out between National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (Nita-U) and the Ministry of ICT over control of a $200m (about Sh710b) World Bank-funded project.

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, says the project should be managed by the ICT ministry in line with government’s reforms of rationalising and merging its entities this financial year. 

But the Nita-U under Dr Hatwib Mugasa says the ICT ministry cannot take charge of the project because its officials have no experience running such a project.

NITA-U was established by law in 2009 to coordinate and regulate Information Technology services, but falls under the general supervision of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance.

The divergent views over the management of the Sh710b Uganda Digital Acceleration Project (UDAP) began before Dr Baryomunsi was named ICT minister in June.

The Finance ministry quickly approved UDAP as one of the flagship projects in government’s digital transformation agenda under the third National Development Plan (NDPIII), documents reviewed by this newspaper show.

Under the project, government administrative units, including sub-counties parishes, schools, hospitals and health centres, would be connected to e-government services to improve efficiency, access to public services, as well as transparency and accountability.

The World Bank approved Shs710b to implement the project with $60m (about Shs213b) being a grant and $140m (about Shs497b) given as a loan. 

On April 22, negotiations were finalised between the World Bank, Nita-U, and the ICT ministry before a memo was sent through the Ministry of Finance to the Cabinet Secretariat for final approval.

Dr Aminah Zawedde was appointed Permanent Secretary in the ICT ministry in July, and on September 27, she wrote to the deputy Head of Public Service, and deputy Secretary to the Cabinet in the Office of the President, giving guidance on how the project would be run going forward.

“The purpose of this letter is to acknowledge receipt of the aforementioned letter [Nita’s letter asking Cabinet to approve UDAP] and notify you that the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance was not consulted prior to this communication,” Dr Zawedde wrote. 

“Therefore, any decisions and instructions relating to UDAP and GovNet should be halted pending final review from the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, A Cabinet number should, therefore, not be assigned until we have harmonised positions with the Permanent Secretary/ Secretary to the Treasury.”

For its part, Nita-U through several correspondences seen by Sunday Monitor has disputed Dr Zawedde’s claims that the ministry wasn’t involved.

“It should be noted that throughout the entire process of designing UDAP, the ministry of ICT & NG  was  heavily involved and took lead in many engagement[s] with the Word Bank, including in the negotiations,” Dr Mugasa wrote to Cabinet on December 1.

“In addition to the above, the honourable minister of ICT & NG wrote to the World Bank requesting for the UDAP implementing agency  to be changed from Nita-U to the Ministry of ICT & NG, citing government’s decision to merge Nita-U under the Ministry of ICT & NG,“ he added.   

The background literature of the project, reviewed by Sunday Monitor, indicates that the financing and feasibility arrangements were made in July 2019 when Mr Frank Tumwebaze was ICT minister, and he led the negotiations before handing them over to his successor, Ms Judith Nabakooba, later that year.

On Nita-U, Dr Zawedde in a letter dated November 9, 2021, asked the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, to divert funds from Nita’s vote 126 to vote 20 of ICT ministry. 

Dr Zawedde, a former board member of Nita-U, wrote: “In order to facilitate both a smooth rationalisation process and also to streamline programme activities under Vote 126 with the respective financing be transferred to vote 020 as subvention. It is our considered opinion that it is technically sound to embark on this transfer now as we formulate the budget for FY [Financial year] 2022/2023.”

“The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to request that all current (wage and non-wage) and development budget under vote 126 Nita-U be transferred to vote 020 Ministry of Information Communications Technology & National Guidance as a subvention.”

Mr Ggoobi on Thursday said he was too busy to respond to our queries on the issues cited and our follow up attempts went answered by press time. 

But Dr Zawedde in phone response over the issues said she could not comment on the issues because they are still in the pipeline.

“The process of rationalisation is still ongoing and I can’t say much about it at the moment,” she said.

However, Dr Baryomunsi had, in another letter dated November 11, informed World Bank’s country manager Mukami Kariuki that Nita-U had been merged with ICT.

“During the meeting held between our respective teams on November 5, we informed you that the government of Uganda took a decision to rationalise various agencies and departments,” he wrote.
“We further brought it to your attention that the government decided to mainstream the functions of the National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (Nita-U) into the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance. I now write to formally inform you that the merger of the functions of Nita- U into my ministry has commenced.”

Dr Baryomunsi, in the same letter, reminded the World Bank, that his ministry was now in charge of the multi-million dollar project. 

“In light of the above, please take note that the implementing agency of the Uganda Digital Acceleration Programme (UDAP) shall be the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance. You may proceed to make necessary assessments to facilitate the required adjustments from your side to help us proceed without delay. Thank you for your continued support,” Dr Baryomunsi wrote.

Dr Baryomunsi did not respond to our voice calls and text messages on whether the World Bank had acted on his requests.

But Ms Josephine Karungi, the Bank’s communication officer, in an email response to our queries, said: “The Uganda Digital Acceleration Project –GovNet – was approved by the World Bank Group Board of Executive Directors on June 2, 2021. It is currently awaiting clearance by the Government of Uganda (Cabinet and Parliament) before the Financing Agreement (FA) can be signed.”

“Following the signing of the FA and the fulfillment of conditions of effectiveness specified in the Financing Agreement by the Implementing Agencies (National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (Nita-U) and the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance), and declaration of project effectiveness, implementation will commence. The project closing date is May 30, 2026.” 

However, in response to Dr Baryomunsi’s letter to the World Bank, Dr Mugasa in a communication seen by this newspaper, warned that Uganda could lose Shs215b grant component of UDAP. In a letter to the ICT minister, Dr Mugasa also warned that Dr Baryomunsi’s letter to the World Bank amounts to the ICT ministry taking over the Authority’s activities without the force of law. 

“The ministry is taking over Nita-U’s activities without the force of law.  For instance, the letter to the World Bank to transfer the UDAP project of $200m from the Nita-U to the ministry of ICT&NG and taking over the rationalization of ICT implementation in government activity without going through the required approvals such as Cabinet decision.”

But when contacted on the issue, the junior minister for Public Service, Ms Grace Mary Mugasa, said: The work of the Executive is still ongoing because we are going by the directive of Cabinet and the Ministry of Public Service because it was  mandated to spearhead the rationalisation exercise.”

She added: “We are going ahead and those agencies that were not formed by an Act of Parliament are being rationalised. For example, the Ministry of Science and  Technology was abolished and now the functions are falling under the Presidency.” 

On Nita-U, she said: “Nita-U will be mainstreamed into the ministry of ICT, but it’s not yet [rationalised], but now we have a batch of 48 [agencies] which we have finished and we shall be taking a Cabinet Paper for approval, then they shall be rationalised.  Those that have [were created by] an Act of Parliament shall be rationalised later.” 

Parliament weighs in

The government’s implementation of the rationalisation exercise to merge or scrap several government agencies has met resistance in Parliament.

In September, Deputy Speaker Anita Among (pictured) directed the Public Service ministry to stop the exercise until a report of Parliament’s ad hoc committee scrutinising the performance of each agency due for merging is debated. 

The committee, which will be chaired by Mr Nathan Byanyima (Bukanga North) also includes Abdul Katuntu (Bugweri), Dan Atwijukire (Kazo), Tonny Ayoo (Kwania) and Christine Apolot (Kumi Woman). The other members are Patrick Nsanja (Ntenjeru South), Anna Adeke (Soroti Woman), Charles Bakkabulindi (Workers) and John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya).

“Parliament has to be involved in every step of the merging exercise because it is going to affect the people we represent. We are going to set up an ad hoc committee to scrutinise the performance of each agency that you want to be merged or scrapped but also to determine what the impact of such a decision would be,” Ms Among said. 

Ms Among’s decision to constitute the ad hoc committee followed a report presented by Public Service minister Muruli Mukasa in September on government’s decision to merge, mainstream and rationalise government agencies, commissions and authorities to facilitate efficient public expenditure. 

Mr Muruli said the main objective was to eliminate structural and functional duplications, overlaps and wasteful expenditure.    

Reacting to the move by Parliament, Dr Mugasa said: “Honourable Muruli Mukasa brought an information paper about rationalisation. It was just an information paper, meaning work was still in progress and after receiving that information paper, Parliament decided to establish an adhoc committee, and indeed, they said work should be halted until we get a position of the ad hoc committee.”

“But you know this government has arms; we have the Executive arm of government and they’re always in the kitchen cooking what they will bring to Parliament and Honourable Muruli Mukasa gave an information paper; it wasn’t the final decision or final report of Cabinet,“ she added.  

Dr Mugasa said: “Let me hope they [Parliament] didn’t act in anticipation because we have to table before them a full report.”