By George Bukenya
Almost one year remaining to the end of NRM 2021-2026 Term of Office, only 35% of the Manifesto commitment have been achieved so far and a big question arise, whether the ruling party will be able to met its target as planned.
While speaking to Journalists during the Manifesto Presentation Week, the Prime Minister Rt. Hon Robina Nabbanja revealed that 35% of her party’s overall commitments have been achieved and 49% is still work- in- progress whereas 16% haven’t started yet due to the limitation of funds and some other reasons.
“ We will achieve 84% of our targeted overall Manifesto commitment if the 49% work-in- progress is complete and this is a distinction although we wanted to achieve more than that,’’ Rt. Hon. Nabbanja asserted.
She also said Uganda has done very well regarding the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is currently ranked 6th in Africa and is at 55% in terms of SDGs implementation.
According to the Prime Minister, as the National Development Plan (NDP III) 2020/21-2024/25 is nearing its end, government is in the final stage of preparing NDP IV and will soon be presented to cabinet for passing then later to parliament.
“This Term of Office as NRM we are prioritizing and putting the emphasis on three aspects that is, Agro-Industrialization, Tourism and Technology and Innovation which we think in turn through sector linkage will help pull up other sectors of the economy,’’ Nabbanja said.
The Minister without portfolio Kasule Lumumba who presented the other part of the presentation of Prime Minister’s Office said that out of the 40 bills presented to parliament, 34 have been passed by Parliament,21 assented to into law and 10 among those passed are pending assent to by the president whereas 6 bills are still under legislation in parliament 2 were referred back to Parliament with proposals for amendments.
Lumumba also said that in an effort to reduce government expenditures and save funds, a total of 63 agencies wait to be merged and functions of other 33 are to be mainstreamed within their mother ministries.
As it’s the role of Prime Minister’s Office to conduct annual and semi annual reviews to determine how well the ministry departments and Local Governments are performing, the Ministry said that there has been an improvement from 35% in 2021/22 to 44% in 2023/24.
“ We monitored the progress of implementation of 123 core projects which are externally financed, for instance, National Oil Palm , Kampala Flyover construction and road upgrading project aimed at decongesting the City Traffic and 132 KV Miram- Kabale Transmission Line and Distribution Project,’’ Lumumba said.
She said out of the projects monitored, 26 were found to be performing below the targets majorly due to delayed acquisition of right of way, Whistle Blowers with wrong motives on projects and government.
On the Disasters that occur every year and claim lives of people, the minister said that Office of the Prime Minister will improve on early warning mechanism and urged families in such areas when alerted should vacate immediately.
She said overall 241 households have been resettled from Bududda to Bulanbulye and 1,500 from Landslide disaster areas were shifted with the help of Red Cross.
Although government resettled such victims with a compensation of UGX 17 in addition to giving them a moderate house, some have since gone back to the Bududa claiming that the soils of Kiryandongo were they were resettled are not fertile, while others say that they are attached to their cultural norms within the mountainous areas.