President Museveni moves to stop tension within Cabinet

Kampala. President Museveni has moved to defuse tension within Cabinet that has led to friction between some senior and junior ministers by appointing an arbiter.

For long, there have been numerous reports that senior ministers are at loggerheads with their juniors over perceived lack of respect, absence of team work, monopolising of trips abroad and assignments.

These incessant squabbles, according to observers, have crippled government work and affected implementation of government programmes.

According to sources, President Museveni has, through a directive, now designated Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, the government chief whip, to sit down the ministers not seeing eye-to-eye to try and create harmony.

Ms Nankabirwa, also the Kiboga Woman MP, confirmed to Daily Monitor her additional role.

“The task is about improving coordination in ministries. When we are in Parliament and the senior minister and the minister of state are not there, especially if they have an issue on the Order Paper, it does not augur well,” Ms Nankabirwa said in an interview recently. Sources said the ministries where friction persists include Lands, Agriculture, Tourism and Education.

Until the last Cabinet reshuffle, there were ripples within the Attorney General’s chambers with a senior minister issuing contradicting opinions to those of his junior.

Former Attorney General Peter Nyombi was eventually dropped in the March 1 Cabinet reshuffle and his junior Fred Ruhindi elevated.

However, the accused senior ministers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed some of the junior ministers are not confident enough to take on delegated work.

“They claim assignments have been given to them on short notice. They even decline to attend conferences. Sometimes audiences have preferences; You send someone and they are rejected, what do you do?,” a minister asked.

Ms Nankabirwa said permanent secretaries have been requested to update all the ministers on policies, ongoing programmes and projects irrespective of whether one is the senior or juniour.

“Lack of co-ordination impacts on the progress of programmes. Once you are not coordinated, you are not going to monitor effectively,” she said.

(NMG)

Dr Rukahana Rugunda, the Prime Minister, in an interview last month said it is “very normal” to have occasions where there are differences of opinion but such incidences are not left to escalate.

“Cabinet and government performance is going on smoothly. In case there are areas where there may be a complaint or concern, such issues are addressed and corrected within the mechanism of government,” he said.

Sources told Daily Monitor that the issue of bad blood flowing in some ministries was first raised during a Cabinet meeting in October-November, 2013 when a junior minister, in a veiled inference, asked for the President’s intervention.

“Mr President, thank you for having time to meet with junior army officers. We request that you find time for your junior ministers too,” a Cabinet source quoted one of the ministers as pleading.Work unattended to: Sources say some senior ministers leave for foreign trips without informing their deputies to hold for in their absence, and the ministry almost remains in auto pilot. But Ms Nankabirwa expressed optimism, saying: “There are ministries where the (senior) ministers and the ministers of state coordinate well,” she said. “[However,] there were some ministries where the senior minister is not around and the junior minister is not aware where the senior minister is. We are bridging the gap,” she added.(NMG)