Speaker Anita Among presiding over the session
Parliament has halted the mainstreaming of the National Physical Planning Board and National Population Council to National Planning Authority (NPA) after MPs queried the authenticity of certificates of financial implication issued by the Ministry of Finance.
Government had argued that the mainstreaming of National Population Council would save it Shs11.9Bn, while Shs4.5Bn would be saved following the mainstreaming of the National Physical Planning Board.
However, there was no indication on the cost that would be incurred by NPA upon expansion of its mandate.
Muhammad Nsereko (Kampala Central) warned that the plan to merge the functions of the National Physical Planning Board with NPA would turn Uganda into the biggest slum in the world yet the country is already grappling with poor physical planning.
“The National Planning Authority’s cardinal role is advising on economic micro and macro policy of the country. The role of the National Physical Planning Board is particularly on land use, management and distribution of resources. How will history judge us that we sat here to merge responsibility from a physical planning body to a micro and macro-economic Authority?” said Nsereko.
“Is it that there is expertise in the NPA for land use management and distribution? People at the National Physical Planning Board have given expertise that people at the National Planning Authority do not have. Physical planning is specific and it requires a body of professionals lest Uganda will go down into history as the biggest slum in the world and the reason is that we don’t take what is cardinal as important,” added Nsereko.
Joel Ssenyonyi, Leader of Opposition said, “I am a little bit alarmed that Government is saying that part of the reason there has been challenges with planning is because these entities are in different locations, so they aren’t in sync that now that they are going to be under one roof, they will be listening to each other, a lot more, I would expect a better reasoning.”
“All the while, the compelling argument has been cutting down on Government expenditure, but now that you are saying, they aren’t listening to each other, because they are in different locations, then you need to be better organized as Government. That would mean for me, that even under one roof, there will still be challenges. You will see we want to cut down on Government expenditure, but we want to make sure there is efficiency,” added Ssenyonyi.
Muruli Mukasa, Minister of Public Service defended the proposal to mainstream all the planning functions of Government into one room, stating, “We looked at the overall planning function in the country and that is why we are saying that this strategic planning done by the National Physical Planning Board should now go to NPA and the other agencies, it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to plan or implement.”
However, his argument was questioned by Dan Kimosho (Kazo County) called for deeper interpretation of the word Planning saying, “This one has confused us, because NPA is at policy level, now, you are talking about Physical Planning Board, it has even a component of enforcement, you are talking about a country whose land use is the most disorganized, people build on trenches, and you are saying, you want to take it to NPA. This word ‘Planning’ we should really condemn it, it has confused us. I want to move that we should really look at this word (Planning) I am not against mainstreaming it, my concern is, where are we taking it because we are really moving as misguided missiles on this, we should consider our position.”
Herbert Tayebwa (Kashongi County) however defended Government’s proposal arguing that NPA has a major mandate of making comprehensive, integrated, development plans and these plans can’t be made without looking at the physical, space and the human resource.
“That is the reason why we have that feel that if the integrated comprehensive planning is under the same house, there will be a lot of coordination. But apparently, physical planning is doing it separately, National Population Council is doing the demographic planning separately and that is why we have failed to do the planning the way it is supposed to be because all these leakages must be coordinated,” said Tayebwa.
Jacob Oboth, Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, said it can only be fair for Parliament to “promote integrated planning, planning even at the family level, if you do it in a disintegrated manner, that home will be disorganized. Government should be given credit for thinking through this aspect of planning and accepting to bring it into one house.”
