On July 1, 2010, the large central district of Masaka gave birth to three more – Bukomansimbi, Kalungu and Lwengo, in a move government argued would bring better services closer to the people.
The new districts came with good political will, but without the necessary resources to make them fully-operational. Six years later, they are operating with skeleton staff, thus impacting poorly on service delivery.
The auditor general’s performance report of the financial year ending June 30, 2015 revealed that many local governments were grappling with acute human resources gaps.
The vacancies range from 14 percent in Bududa district local government to 87 percent in Luuka town council.
“Understaffing overstretches the available staff beyond their capacity, creates job-related stress to the fewer staff and negatively-affects the level of public service delivery to the community,” the auditor general, John Muwanga, stated in the report.
According to the president of the Uganda Local Governments’ Association (ULGA), George Mutabaazi, who is also the LC-V chairman for Lwengo district, the countrywide average problem of understaffing stands at 46 percent.
To get work done, each available employee has to take on assignments that would have been done by two or three other staff. The districts can’t fill the staffing gaps due to their limited wage bill and a ban on recruitment by the ministry of public service, according to the auditor general’s report, which to the ULGA boss, calls for a rethink of the relevance of the ministry of public service.
KEY STAFF
“We need to think a lot about scrapping the ministry of public service and create job centres like it is in developed countries that after graduating, professionals deposit their academic testimonials there than having ministry officials doing no work but drawing salaries and allowances,” Mutabaazi told The Observer in a recent interview.
While the districts were allowed to recruit key staff at the district headquarters such as a district engineer, district health officer, among others, such positions are still vacant in many districts.
Bukomansimbi and Kalungu districts have, for instance, never recruited a district engineer, a key officer charged with monitoring infrastructural development projects.
“We were allowed to fill gaps in critical departments but we are unable to retain them,” says Davis Dembe, the Kalungu chief administrative officer (CAO).
“When we advertise, they come, look around and go away because of the remoteness of the area, and the salary itself is not attractive.”
According to the ministry of public service’s salary structure, a district engineer is paid a U1 scale salary of approximately Shs 1.65m.
“The guidelines require us to recruit a registered engineer, which means that we need a highly-qualified person whom you cannot retain with such a small salary. Many prefer working with organizations such Unra [Uganda National Roads Authority] or private contractors that pay them handsomely,” says Badru Mayanja Majwaala, the town clerk of Lwengo town council.
According to its staffing structure, Lwengo town council must have 45 staff but only 18 positions are filled, leaving a gap of 27 positions. Neighbouring Kyazanga town council has 17 employees instead of 52.
“The effect of this is that you will not have them deliver effectively because they take on extra assignments for which they are not paid,” Mayanja said.
While improving the districts’ staffing levels was one of the resolutions made during a five-day government retreat at Speke resort Munyonyo, near Kampala in September, President Museveni had a different view.
“I will not accept the excuse of low staffing in local governments; the only area where low staffing is a problem is in a school or a health centre,” Museveni said while closing the retreat.
Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP) Winnie Kiiza, in a recent interview with The Observer, reminded President Museveni that a staff structure demonstrates that certain people have to play certain roles.
“When you don’t hire them, it means that the work they are supposed to do is not being done and, therefore, service delivery can’t balance,” Kiiza said.
“It is some of these gaps that are facilitating the thuggery and corruption we are seeing. You’ll find that money that is supposed to be handled by an officer who is not at station will be attached to another officer and they end up sharing the money among themselves,” she added.
AUTONOMY
While in his report the auditor general advised leaders of local governments to continue engaging the ministries of public service, local governments and finance planning and economic development to address the challenge, the district leaders don’t see much hope.
“What we need now is for the centre to give us our autonomy because what is happening right now is giving us with one hand and taking away with another,” Mutabaazi said.
Iganga LC-V chairman Patrick Kayemba blamed the problem on government’s over-recentralization as opposed to the decentralization policy which may stand in the way of the realization of the much-desired middle-income economy.
While the Local Governments Act provides for the devolution of powers, functions and responsibilities to popularly-elected local governments; the districts’ overdependence on the central government cash transfers kills the dream.
This is due to the districts’ poor performance in local revenue collections. According to the auditor general, a review of revenue performance in 59 districts revealed an under collection of local revenue amounting to Shs 23.9bn.
Muwanga attributed the shortfall in revenue collection to the local governments’ failure to carry out revenue enumeration and assessments, non-enforcement of contracts with private revenue collectors, understaffing and incomplete revenue records.
“There seems to be little effort in ensuring effective collection of local revenue,” the auditor general wrote.
But Mutabaazi said local governments cannot do much especially when their staff are overloaded, which may make it difficult for the districts to implement a resolution from the Munyonyo retreat that requires them to compile a comprehensive database of revenue sources.
“In Lwengo, there are parishes that we have joined two or three to be served by one parish chief; how do you expect that person to effectively mobilize local revenue?” Mutabaazi wondered.
The parish chiefs and law enforcement officers who are critical in the mobilization of local revenue earn a paltry monthly salary of Shs 360,000 which is forcing many out of the district service.
Given their low revenue collections, the districts have ended up becoming largely dependent on the central government that funds up to 85 percent of their budgets, of which the biggest share goes to financing the wage bill.
For instance, this financial year, all the eight districts of Teso sub region were allocated Shs 36bn, of which 75 percent goes to the wage bill. Lwengo was allocated Shs 15bn, of which Shs 9bn is for salaries and wages, Shs 4bn is conditioned to specific programs, leaving the district with only Shs 2bn to finance other activities.
RESTRUCTURING
To patch up the gaps, the ministry of public service is undertaking a restructuring process in local governments aimed at having affordable structures for more effective and efficient delivery of services.
The ministry of public service wrote to local governments proposing a new staffing structure that required the approval of the respective district councils. The process, according to a retired senior civil servant well versed with the operations of local governments, is supposed to be conducted after every five years, but for unknown reasons, it was last conducted in the early 2000s.
The new process has drawn some optimism. Some local government leaders believe it is likely to come with an increment in the wage bill.
“I think it will address the problem of understaffing [because] the government promised to increase the wage bill, that will enable us to recruit new staff,” said Bukomansimbi LC-V chairman Muhammad Kateregga.
While Kateregga is hopeful that the government will be committed to its pledge to provide more funds for the districts’ wage bill, Bernard Okello, the Senior human resource officer for Luweero district, raised questions on some of the proposed new positions.
According to Okello, some positions suggested in the new staffing structures may not be applicable in some districts. The new structure increases principal positions in various departments and introduces new departments such as trade, industry and economic development, creating in it three positions of commercial, tourism, wildlife and conservation officers.
The districts will also recruit two information technology (IT) officers whose importance is not seen in many rural districts.
sadabkk@observer.ug
This article is produced with support from Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA)