PARLIAMENT OF UGANDA Tuesday, 4 May 2021 Parliament met at 11.29 a.m. in Parliament House, Kampala. PRAYERS (The Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, in the Chair.) The House was called to order. COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR THE SPEAKER: Honourable members, I welcome you to this morning sitting. I have two issues to communicate. One is that we should try as much as possible to run through the items on the Order Paper. Secondly, I ask the Clerk to remind ministers who have questions to answer this week to come and respond to them. There are issues we need to get addressed before Parliament closes. Thank you. MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS I. ON LAYING OF THE HOST GOVERNMENT AGREEMENT TARRIF AND TRANSPORTATION AGREEMENT AND SHARE HOLDERS AGREEMENT FOR THE EAST AFRICAN CRUDE OIL PIPE LINE THE SPEAKER: Is the minister here? No. let him come and brief us before we close. II. ON THE IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY OF THE PROPOSED PARISH MODEL 11.32 THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE, PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (PLANNING) (Mr David Bahati): Thank you, Madam Speaker. You recall that the last time we were here, on the request of the Prime Minister, we agreed that we should have an interaction with the Committee on Budget. We had a meeting on Friday with the Committee on Budget and we generated consensus and common ground on how to move forward but in principle as you guided, we are moving forward to implement the Parish Model, to ensure that we reach the grass root. We also agreed on a number of ways on how this is going to be financed. The Committee on Budget will be reporting the details of the financing but in principle we agreed that the Parish Model; targeting two out of five households who live in a subsistence economy, should move forward; beginning next financial year. The activities that we will carry out; including recruitment of the parish chiefs, training of the parish development committees in the first quarter and then, beginning with the second quarter, the programme 1 Disclaimer: The electronic version of the Official Report of the proceedings of Parliament (Hansard) is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Office of the Clerk to Parliament. and this strategy, implementation starts in earnest. So, the committee on Budget will be reporting on the details of the financing. THE SPEAKER: Thank you, honourable minister. Honourable Members, we shall wait to hear from the Budget Committee. Let us go to item no.3 (iii). III. ON THE MODALITIES FOR EFFECTING THE MERGER OF SELECTED GOVERNMENT AGENCIES GIVEN THAT MOST OF THEM ARE ESTABLISHED BY ACTS OF PARLIAMENT 11.34 THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE (Mr David Karubanga): Madam Speaker, I wish to report that Cabinet on 22 February 2021, approved the recommendations for the rationalisation of Government agencies, commissions, authorities’ expenditure and the road map for the implementation process for a period of two years to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery. The overall objective of rationalisation of agencies and public expenditure was to eliminate structural ambiguities, functional duplications and overlaps, wasteful expenditures and realise resultant short-term and long-term savings, which would be utilised to provide other critical public services, in line with approved implementation roadmap. My ministry was directed to report to the House in regard to the modalities for effecting the merger of selected Government agencies; given that most of them are established under the Constitution or by Acts of Parliament. I wish to report as follows; by way of our historical perspective, the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda of 1995; as amended in 2006 in Article 189, Schedule 6 and Section 9, of the Local Governments Act, CAP 243, clearly prescribes functions and services which were reserved for central Government ministries. These include policy formulation, coordination and inspection, provision of technical advice and support supervision and training within the respective sectors of Government. The Constitution further creates a number of commissions, authorities, boards and other statutory bodies to support sector ministries to adequately fulfill their mandate. The creation of Government agencies picked momentum in early 2000 and continued to gain support due to the following reasons; 1. Obligations arising from international protocols and agreements. 2. Conditionalities for accessing development as