This artilce appeared in the Daily Monitor dated 10 Feb 2008 wittten by Chris Obore. If there us truhg in this, then ther could be something worth noting!
CHRIS OBORE
Only President, VP, Speaker and Deputy, PM to keep cars
Car repairs cost Shs68bn yearly; primary health only Shs6bn
Credibility cited in policy reform, 81bn saving expected
COMING amidst heated public debate about unequal distribution of public sector jobs, some NRM parliamentarians have released a report showing how the government’s spending priorities are skewed in favour of non-essential items such as entertainment.
The report, which was made public during a meeting of the ruling party’s parliamentary caucus on Monday last week by Mr Barnabas Tinkansimire (NRM, Buyaga), makes drastic recommendations for cost-cutting, amongst which is the wholesale offloading of government cars.
Mr Tinkansimire’s document reveals how during the 2006/07 financial year the government spent Shs10.9 billion on allowances while just Shs6 billion was spent on primary healthcare. Primary healthcare programmes mainly focus on management of common diseases such as malaria, especially in rural areas where 80 percent of Ugandans live.
Although the government has rolled out several pro-poor programmes such as agricultural extension, primary healthcare, universal primary and secondary education, the allocation of resources, especially money, does not reflect the necessary commitment to see them through.
Consequently, many critics have long pointed at the huge cost of public administration as one of the impediments to improving people’s lives in a country where 31 percent of the population lives in abject poverty.
For instance, the report notes, the government last financial year spent Shs68.5 billion on maintaining its fleet of thousands of fuel-guzzling 4WD vehicles (engine capacity ranging between 2000cc and 3500cc), while allocating a disproportionate Shs14.5 billion for the repair of district roads.
And while Shs23 billion was spent on buying fuel and oils for public vehicles, a measly Shs4.4 billion was allocated to urban road repairs, fortifying the view that taxpayers were paying more for the driving comfort of bureaucrats than for a public good like roads.
Maintenance of cars poses a particular headache with the report noting that “most government vehicles are always in garages” where they are “cannibalised … by garage owners well knowing that government will after all buy new spare parts to repair their vehicles”.
Adds the report: “On the other hand transport officers/drivers connive with garage owners to inflate bill on the job cards.”In the same period, the government spent Shs2.2 billion on “welfare and entertainment” of bureaucrats whereas it spent Shs1.5 billion on the provision of urban water.
Agricultural extension received Shs3.06 billion in the same year as the government splashed Shs10.04 billion on inland travel. A vast majority of Ugandans depend directly on agriculture for their livelihood.
The Tinkasiimire group included MPs Henry Banyenzaki (NRM, Rubanda West), Dr Chris Baryomunsi (NRM, Kinkizi East) and Dr Sam Lyomoki (NRM, Workers). In the interest of reducing spiralling public administration costs, they recommended that a car co-ownership scheme replaces the existing arrangement.
Under the scheme, ministers and civil servants would meet 50 percent of the cost of running the vehicle for five years then later own it permanently without paying taxes, which taxes will be waived.
“The [NRM] caucus adopted our report and we have been asked to sit with the ministers of Finance and Works to work out modalities on how to operationalise it,” Mr Tinkasiimire said. “After we have worked out that, we shall present a Bill to Parliament in three months.”
The MPs’ report proposes that only the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament continue enjoying transportation at the taxpayers’ cost.
Currently, all ministers, permanent secretaries, directors, senior consultants, commissioners, heads of government projects all totalling to 670 are entitled to a government vehicle.
Other categories of staff use pool vehicles.At the headquarter level alone, government vehicles numbered 12,004 by 2005, excluding all those managed under government-affiliated projects. This figure may have more than doubled considering that the total number of public officers, starting with the President, who are entitled to cars, today stands at 40,679.
In the 2006/07 financial year, Shs221 billion was budgeted to buy new vehicles reflecting the pressure that transportation of staff exerts on the country’s already limited resources.During the 7th Parliament, Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi astonished the public when he said that ministers and other technocrats enjoy chauffeur-driven 4WD cars because Uganda’s roads are in terrible shape.
However, if the proposed co-ownership scheme is adopted by Parliament, the costs of the driver, fuel and car service will now be met by the ministers and technocrats. After all, a lot of these official cars also conduct personal business.Still, some MPs think it will not work well despite the good intentions.
“That is what the party has agreed and I can’t disagree but we tried the co-ownership scheme in 1991 and it failed,” said Mr George William Wopuwa (NRM, Bubulo East). “At the end of it all, it will be like government is buying cars for individuals by paying consolidated mileage.”
Mr Wopuwa is the chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Public Service and Local Government. He said that some officers will park their cars at home and go to office to (mis)use the few remaining government vehicles.
“The biggest problem is that the people supposed to control the use of cars are normally the ones who flout the regulations,” Mr Wopuwa said.
But Mr Tinkasiimire said they have conducted studies in countries like Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia and Mauritius where co-ownership works.
Further, using the 2006/07 budget estimates, the report says that co-ownership would eventually guarantee a net annual saving of Shs81.9 billion in fuel and maintenance costs.
Mr Tinkasiimire’s report concludes that “this reform will be seen as pro-poor …. [and] it will give government more credibility amongst the local population and donor community”.
SELECTED GOVT EXPENDITURE AT A GLANCE
MINISTRY BUDGETS
Amount
Allowances to officials 10,926,500,000
Inland travel 10,043,703,000
Grants to ministries 6,015,565,000
Grants to ministries 7,764,203,000
Welfare and entertainment 2,258,836,000
Fuel and oils 23,454,685,000
Maintenance of vehicles 68,538,035,000
KEYLOCAL GOVT SERVICES
Primary Health Care development 6,095,700,000
Agriculture extension 3,060,225,000
District equalisation grant 3,494,160,000
Functional adult literacy 1,597,760,000
Urban water 1,503,910,000
Urban roads 4,404,595,000
District roads 14,510,969,000
SOURCE: Ministry of Finance (Budget 2006/2007)
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