President Yoweri Museveni and selected MPs on the Parliamentary Committees of Agriculture, National Economy and Finance have agreed to proceed with the rationalization of Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and Dairy Development Authority (DDA) to the Ministry of Agriculture, although the merger of UCDA will be delayed three years in order to foster efficiency.
The decision was taken during yesterday’s meeting at the State House.
With an emphasis on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery, Museveni underscored the necessity of rationalization as a fundamental strategy for optimal resource allocation within government structures.
“Rationalization must go on as the correct system by having a structure that is not extravagant,” President Museveni stated, reinforcing the government’s commitment to streamline operations and reduce wastage.
Museveni also highlighted that focusing on a singular entity with a clear mandate would eliminate redundancy and inefficiencies caused by multiple stakeholders in the system.
Museveni called for the establishment of an economic framework built on scientific knowledge. As part of enhancing agricultural service delivery, he recommended revising government Standing Orders to ensure the inclusion of Agricultural Scientist Personnel at the Sub-county level. This initiative aims to provide better guidance on agricultural practices and optimise food production methods in Uganda.
However, the MPs expressed their fears about the competence of the Ministry of Agriculture to handle the mandate of UCDA, which the Authority is seeing as one of the most strategic commodities for Uganda.
“We told him (President Museveni) that the Ministry of Agriculture has no capacity in terms of fulfilling the mandate of UCDA. The main mandate of UCDA is regulation of quality and this is very important for our international market. UCDA has entities that are certified, should we change that, we are going to lose our quality on the international market Uganda’s robust coffee is number three on the globe. We told the President that if we go that direction, we are going to lose our market, we are going to distort the market on which the livelihood of the people of Uganda rely on, 12.5 million people,” Abed Bwanika, member of the Agriculture Committee explained.
Bwanika added, “And we told the President that the Ministry, where he wants to take this very important entity, hasn’t displayed efficiency. The Ministry of Agriculture has so many loans in millions of dollars that they have failed to implement. They are never on the desks. They are moving everywhere on the globe. So, we told him that we can’t take this very strategic commodity and hand it over to the Ministry like that.”
Bwanika further revealed that the President agreed with the MPs that it was necessary to have a delay on the rationalization of UCDA and he proposed to have a clause included in the bill to provide for a three year transition period for UCDA to be incorporated into the Ministry of Agriculture, although Bwanika insisted that the President’s proposal will be subjected to further scrutiny in Parliament.
