The Office of the President has raised concerns over the poor implementation of President Museveni’s 23 core strategic guidelines and directives that were issued in 2016.
A performance assessment conducted by the Apex Platform, an executive public policy management forum chaired by the president, found that most government ministries, departments and agencies had failed to fully implement the directives.
According to the report, only two of the 23 presidential directives were fully achieved. One directive performed above average, 10 were rated average, eight performed below average, and two were not achieved at all.
Presenting the findings, Emmanuel Walani, the Under Secretary in the ministry of the Presidency, said the directives were intended to improve governance, service delivery and economic development.
Among the key directives assessed were governance and anti-corruption measures aimed at promoting zero tolerance for corruption, environmental protection through the removal of encroachers from wetlands and forest reserves, and sector reforms focusing on agriculture, petroleum and mineral development.
Other priorities included major infrastructure and investment projects such as fast-tracking the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway and negotiations aimed at lowering electricity costs following the Bujagali Hydropower project.
Responding to the findings, the minister for the Presidency, Milly Babalanda, acknowledged the shortcomings in implementing the President’s directives.
She attributed the poor performance partly to the tendency of government institutions to work in isolation rather than collaboratively.
“This must stop if we are to achieve the president’s dream of providing the best services to the people,” Babalanda said.
She urged ministries, departments and agencies to work together more closely, noting that all government entities serve under the leadership of President Museveni and share a common responsibility to deliver results.
Babalanda said the start of a new government term should mark a renewed commitment to addressing programmes that have underperformed.
“There should be no more sleep. Let us fix all the programmes that have failed,” she said.
The minister emphasised that teamwork must be at the centre of government operations if service delivery is to improve.
She also warned against corruption, saying it should not be tolerated under any circumstances. She added that poor performance and excuses for failing to deliver services would no longer be acceptable.
The Apex Platform report is expected to guide government agencies as they work to improve implementation of presidential directives and strengthen public service delivery across the country.
