We need quality services and not new Districts


There has always been a call to reduce the size of public administration thus reducing the cost of public administration. The argument has always been that creating more administrative units is actually stretching the budget so hard that you will have more of expenditure and consumption rather than production and provision of services. Whereas the spirit of the decentralization policy is to bring services closer to the people, this has not been the case and thus there is need to probe further. Lets us look at one of the factors-cost of running public administration; it is so humongous for the tax payers to hold, one would need at least 139 Billion to just birth a new district, how about we used this money to enhance service delivery?


We have been lost in creating more local units in the name of delivering services without even taking an honest audit on the performance of the existing ones. The intention of the administrative units is to bring services closer to the people and not merely creating more jobs/ awards for some people at the expense of others. I do not understand the logic of creating more districts without facilities in the name of creating jobs. The President has on several occasions stated that civil servants should be reduced! But he yet again orders for creation of new districts supposedly upon demand of voters! This is totally an obverse! But what is important to me is to actually review the whole system of administration. In a district for example, you will have the CAO, LC V, LC 3, about three MPS, a woman MP, Councillors, Parish chiefs, and many other technical personnel. The question is, what do all these people do in making sure services are delivered.


How are you going to reduce civil servants yet you are creating more districts? This befits logic. We need to shift from political rewards to full service delivery commitments! I would instead increase teachers so as to reduce teacher-pupil ratio, increase health workers, veterinary officers, Agriculture officers among others; this is what they call bringing services closer to the people and not the mere creating a district by name and in essence, it is sharing facilities with the former mother district.


If we are to transform Uganda to the middle income status and also in the name of leaving no one behind, we need to concentrate on service providers rather than creating more burdensome administration units!


People do not need districts, what they desire are adequate quality services and these can be provided with the existing or even lesser systems.

By:Michael Aboneka Jr.

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