Gov’t to Merge UHRC and EOC

The government has resolved to merge the roles of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in accordance to the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023 gazetted on October 6, 2023.

Government said the policy behind the Bill is to give effect to the Government Policy for Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX) which was adopted by the Cabinet on February 22, 2021.

The roles of UHRC are to create and sustain awareness to the society of the provisions of the constitution; educate and encourage the public to defend the constitution at all times against all forms of abuse; and to formulate, implement and oversee programmes to create awareness in the citizens of their civic duties.

The Equal Opportunities Commission is mandated to eliminate discrimination and inequalities against any individual or group of persons on the ground of sex, age, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, health status, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability, and take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalised on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom for the purpose of redressing imbalances which exist against them, and to provide for other related matters.

The proposed legislation seeks to “repeal, and to make amendments to, certain provisions of the Constitution to merge the Equal Opportunities Commission with the Uganda Human Rights Commission and to rationalise the administrative framework for the performance of the law reform function in Uganda by establishing a department responsible for law reform in the Ministry responsible for justice.

The Government proposal to disband and merge departments and agencies is aimed at slashing annual public administration costs which as of 2021 amounted to Shs 1.3 Trillion.

According to Public Service Minister Muruuli Mukasa, the proliferation of agencies had created mandate overlaps and jurisdictional ambiguities among the agencies.

“Additionally, the high cost of administering the agencies has drained the national treasury at the expense of effective service delivery,” said Muruuli, adding, “This has overstretched the capacity of the Government to sustain them.”

He said the Government has also established that the generous salary structures of the agencies has created salary disparities between employees of the agencies and public officers in the traditional civil service leading to demotivation of human resources in the mainstream public service.

Muruuli said the new bill will enable the merging, mainstreaming and rationalisation of agencies, commissions, authorities and public expenditure thereby, inter alia relieving the Government of the financial drain on its resources and the burden of wasteful administration and expenditure;

The proposed law is also expected to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery by clearly delineating the mandates and functions of government agencies and departments, thereby avoiding duplication of mandates and functions; promoting coordinated administrative arrangements, policies and procedures for ensuring the efficient and successful management, financial accounting and budgetary discipline of government agencies and departments; and enabling the Government to play its proper role more effectively.