By Shivan Tuhirirwe,
KAMPALA
Opposition National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) has called on the government to conduct a mandatory audit of all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) before the proposed merger.
Government is set to merge at least 63 agencies into their respective ministries in abid to streamline their functions streamlining the functions. Only 61 agencies across different sectors will be retained and the government is anticipating to save at least 1 trillion shillings from this rationalization.
Although NEED welcomed the idea to merge MDAs with similar functions, they are calling for accountability within various agencies pointing out mismanagement of taxpayer’s funds as something which has caused malfunctioning of these agencies.
Asuman Odaka, the NEED Secretary General in a press conference held yesterday (February 5) noted increasing corruption scandals in many MDAs which he said has dragged the country into countless financial losses.
He said the merger will turn fruitless unless the government addresses the rampant corruption within MDAs.
