Govt needs to practice what it often preaches

The Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister’s proposal that offices for assistant deputy speakers be strongly considered is utterly unjustifiable amid tight budgets and rising demands.

Mr Norbert Mao reckons that Uganda should move swiftly to avert the possibility of a constitutional crisis when Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa is unable to hold the fort for Speaker Anita Among. The latter is currently on maternity leave. 

The shrinking government grants combined with rising costs mean that Mr Mao’s proposal will carry a colossal economic weight that will doubtless be brought to bear on the taxpayer.

It is also worth noting that the government’s budget wonks have previously indicated that they intend to restore the economy’s competitiveness through reducing prices and public spending.

It seems extraordinary, in such circumstances, that the government would consider increasing the cost of public administration.

Across a two-decade stretch, budgetary allocations to this vote have increased rather eye-wateringly from Shs465 billion in the 2001/2002 fiscal year to Shs2.7 trillion in the 2020/2021 fiscal year. Besides having the legal obligation to balance its books, the taxpayer—struggling with the painful effects of high food, housing and other costs—has every right to demand a leaner public sector. This includes not just lawmakers in the House but also those that direct traffic in it.

While the cost of propping up the legislative branch of government has kept soaring (for one, Shs672.8 billion was outlaid in 2020/2021 compared to Shs470 billion the prior fiscal year), the optics on the floor of Parliament are infernal.

No less spectacularly clumsy are proceedings in House committees where a morbid interest in trivial issues like personalities persists.

The cynicism that compels some observers to reason that expressive power remains tantalisingly out of reach whether or not business is taking place in the House should not be shrugged off. 

It is also not lost upon us that local governments are struggling to contain deficits and teetering on the brink of insolvency. Shs51.2 billion is, per the Local Government ministry, needed to put up 332 offices for districts and sub-counties.

It is now as clear as daylight that the sheer volume of local government units—and the spending to go with—has morphed into the quintessential millstone around the central government’s neck.

A conversation around the relevance of these units and whether the attempt to decentralise power is yielding dividends is long overdue.

With anecdotes offering little or no support, we are compelled to conclude that the obsession with big government (add the Cabinet to the mix) speaks to a record of poor judgment by our leaders. They should quickly snap out of this rut engendered, no doubt, by patronage.

For now, we resist the temptation to conclude that Yoweri Museveni’s government has neither the will nor capacity to undertake reform to correct this expensive problem.