Uganda’s legislature, which is currently considering bills that rationalise government operations, has rejected a proposal to merge all tribunals into a single entity.
- The National Tribunal Bill 2024 would have repealed the laws that create crucial tribunals such as the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT), the Electricity Disputes Tribunal, and all other tribunals.
- A committee minority report pointed out that merging the tribunals would contravene the constitution which created them.
- Other tribunals on the rejected proposal were the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Appeals, Insurance Appeals Tribunal, Uganda Communications Tribunal and Retirement Benefits Appeals Tribunal.
“The framers of the 1995 Constitution were alive to this fact and in their wisdom, which we do not have any doubt at all, gave Taxation an article of its own in Article 152 under the heading TAXATION,” Jonathan Odur (UPC, Erute County South) said in the minority report.
The legislators also faulted the committee for not consulting key stakeholders, such as Uganda‘s Revenue Authority (URA) in TAT, and for seeking to merge constitutional tribunals without a constitutional amendment.
“We will pull back for now and come back better and stronger. The matters of contention are now clear to us. I wish to move under Rule 140 to withdraw the Bill,” Nobert Mao, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs said while following Speaker Anita Among’s recommendation to withdraw the bill because there is ‘a drafting problem.’
Whereas most of the agencies are necessary due to the critical nature
of the functions they perform, Government has established that a
certain limited number of agencies were established without due
consideration to the aspects of Institutional harmony, functional duplications, overlaps, and Affordability.Government has also established that some agencies have served the purpose for which they were established. The mandate of a few other agencies has been
Introduction to a now withdrawn bill on the rationalisation process. Source.
overtaken by events. Such agencies need to be rationalised.
What Made it Through
Uganda’s legislature has recently passed a series of bills that are part of the wider strategy of rationalising government operations. It merged three agricultural agencies, the Cotton Development Organisation (CDO), Dairy Development Authority (DDA) and National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) into the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF).
It also sent the Forestry Authority to the Ministry of Water and Environment, as the government moves to reroute agencies into line ministries. The plan was adapted by Cabinet in February 2021 to reduce government expenditure and save more than UShs. 1 trillion. A first attempt failed in February 2024, when the government withdrew all bills following concerns that they were not accompanied by certificates of financial implications, defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.
Two months later, Kampala tabled 11 bills, kickstarting the now ongoing process. The exercise will lead to job losses, as the government is seeking to eliminate duplication of roles and functions. At a recent event, Speaker Among asked the Public Service to ensure those affected are “being absorbed or compensated.”
