It is generally believed that there is “Scarcity” of Public Administration in developing countries. What is the reasoning behind this statement? How can the governments of developing countries tackle the problem of lack of Public Administration? (20 marks).

Public Administration

Public administration has been defined differently by different scholars one of the notable definitions include; Public Administration may be defined as all processes, organizations, and individuals acting in official positions and roles associated with carrying out laws and other rules adopted or issued by legislatures, executives, and courts (many activities are also concerned with formulations of these rules) (Gulick & Urwick, 2004).

While (Kettl,, 2015) States that Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive, and judicial governmental mandates for the provision of regulatory and service functions for the society as a whole or for some segments of it.

Unlike the developed countries most of the developing countries especially in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and Latin America seem not to be having public administration.

In order to analyze this it is imperative to define a developing country;

Developing countries are countries with low or medium human development index (HDI), low living standards, low per capita income, widespread poverty, and have underdeveloped industry and outdated infrastructure and are facing long periods of recession. The World Bank classifies the world’s economies into four groups, based on Gross National Income per capita: high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low income countries. Some of the examples of developing country include; Uganda, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania and all the sub-Saharan African countries.

The following are some of the elements of public administration

Administrative accountability, Accountability is important for effective performance in the public sector because both elected and non-elected officials need to show the public that they are performing their responsibilities in the best possible way and using the resources provided them effectively and efficiently. This is one of the key elements of public administration and when accountability is effective there is an effective use of government resources. In most of the developed countries there is accountability to the citizens by the government. This is not done by many developing countries, for example lack of accountability explains why Nigeria being the 6^th biggest world producer of oil and having four lame-duck refineries, cannot meet domestic demands for petroleum products. The steel sector has also suffered severe knocks from political recklessness. A country with two major iron and steel industries and four (4) inland rolling mills cannot produce ten percent (10%) of domestic iron needs (Arwolo, 2019), while in Uganda

In 2012 US$12.7 million in donor funds was embezzled from Uganda’s Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) , though the money stolen was for rebuilding northern Uganda and Karamoja, while the supects were never tried in the courts of law, this indicated that there is no accountability for public officials and this therefore indicates absence of public administration in these countries.

In order to achieve accountability there is need to have transparency in governance of the government sector as this will ensure that the citizens are served promptly is imperative to achieve good governance. Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations (Tijssen & Erika, 2018). Most of developing countries lack transparency in their institutions this is observed by that fact that there is abuse of human rights in these countries for example in the recently concluded elections in Uganda during the November 18 to 19^th 2020 more than 54 Ugandans were shot and killed during the protest but there has never been justice on them six months after the elections this shows total lack of transparency in the state organs and it can therefore be concluded that there is absence of public administration in this scenario.

In order to achieve good governance public formulators must ensure that there is Consensus, among the citizens either directly or through the members elected to represent the citizens. There are several actors and as many viewpoints in a given society. Good governance requires mediation of the different interests in society to reach a broad consensus in society on what is in the best interest of the whole community and how this can be achieved

Good governance is essential in achieving Equity and inclusiveness among the citizens and this in long run creates peace and harmony as the citizens will feel they are in control of their destiny. A society’s wellbeing depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. This requires all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their wellbeing.

One of the most critical element of public administration is that the government has to work towards public interest, while most of the government in developing countries do not work towards public interest for example as reported by the daily monitor Saturday November 04 2017, the debate on the presidential age limits led to the arrest of many opposition MPS something that indicated that there is a general failure of rule of considering the interest of the people by the state.

Corruption in developing countries; the estimate on record is that between 1970 and 2008, illicit financial flows were over $800 billion from Africa. The United Nations estimates that illegal outflows of capital from Africa totaled over $830 billion in the first 15 years of this century, much of it linked to movements of high-value commodities like gold, diamonds, and platinum straining the ability of the continent’s governments to provide services like healthcare, education, and infrastructure (Yeboah-Assiamah, et al., 2016).

Failure of the justice systems in most of the developing countries is a sign of absence of the public administration. Most of the criminals in many African countries because of their connections with the state they are not tried in courts of law. There is also many incidences were the political opponents are taken as criminals and arrested , there supporters sometimes tried in military courts despite being innocent, for example in the just concluded elections of January 2021, more than 40 supporters of the national unity platform were tried in military courts , something which is unconstitutional and in addition to this other developing countries like Zimbabwe during the reign of Robert Mugabe people were arrested innocently especially political opponents.

Poor health facilities in most of the developing countries , this also questions the presence of public administration in these countries. The citizens of developing countries always always suffer from preventable diseases and as a consequence they die young and this is mostly due to the fact that developing countries spend less on health facilities that the developed countries since the countries donot prioritize essential facilities like health for example a developing country like Nigeria spends 3.7% of its GDP on health care: a figure well below global average but on par with many of the countries around it. Although it has a network of multi-discipline hospitals, mainly in the more urban areas, doctors complain of low pay. Despite only being ranked at 187 on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) league tables (World health report published in 2000) for the overall effectiveness of its health care system while a developed country like USA In 2019, the U.S. spent 17% of its GDP on health consumption, whereas the next highest comparable country (Switzerland) devoted 12% of its GDP to health spending.

General lack of employment opportunities in developing countries, majority of developing countries have high unemployment levels something that indicates that public administrators are not doing their jobs of creating jobs and ensuring efficiency in carrying out their mandates, for example in Uganda as a consequence of this high population growth, youth unemployment has risen sharply over the last couple of years. According to a survey carried out by Action Aid and the Uganda National NGO Forum, the unemployment rate among young people in Uganda is 61. 6 per-cent in 2012 (Baluku, et al., 2019). Given the fact that that more than 50 % of the population is below 18, the amount of unemployed people in Uganda is enormous, while in another developing country like Namibia the level of unemployment is at 36.6%, Kiribati is at 30.0%, democratic republic of congo the level of unemployment is at 36.00%, while in developed countries like, Japan: 2.3%, Germany: 3% , United States: 3.9% and United Kingdom: 4.1%.

Good governance in key in public administration while in the developing there is generally failed governance since there is always no consensus among the population. Since consensus leads to peace and stability these countries sometimes they face instability and hostility due to failure to reach consensus amongst themselves, for example Somalia has been facing the challenge of Alshababa for more than 20 years now, Boko haram in Nigeria, secession tendencies in Cameroun and Ethiopia is also facing a challenge of Tigray fighting this indicates that there is no consensus among the populations and this has fuelled hostilities leading to terror activities in these countries, unlike in developed countries like South Korea, United States , Japan and France which are stable and there is consensus among the citizens on the governance of the state.

How can the governments of developing countries tackle the problem of lack of Public Administration? (20 marks).

Ensuring the rule of law; when the government of developing countries emphasize the rule of law most of the challenges like injustice won’t be felt and this will also make them have a vibrant and prosperous society where human rights are respected.

Adopting of democratic practices. When the governments of developing countries adopt the democratic practices they will ensure that they achieve the national consensus and the will of the people will be respected this will enable these countries to sustainable peace and prosperity and also enhance the rule of law.

Enhancing transparency across the government departments, this will help in stamping out corruption across the government departments. When corruption is high there is always poor service delivery and this therefore affects the quality of life of the citizens of the country. In developed countries like Denmark there is almost no corruption in these country and this has enhance quality of life of the citizens. Today Denmark citizens enjoy one the best quality of life in the world unlike high corrupt countries like Nigeria were the citizens have one of the poorest quality of life in the world.

Building a strong education systems that respondents to the needs of the society, this will enable developing countries to a workforce that is capable and can produce the desired results. Some of the countries like south Korea use less than 35 years to become developed countries because of the having a strong economic base.

Investing enough resources on the health department of the country, as it is evident that most of the developing countries like Nigeria invest less than 4% of their total Gdp on health therefore it is imperative for these countries to invest more resource on Health. To enable better service delivery.

Enhancing good governance; Having good governance guarantees Accountability to the citizens. Accountability is a key requirement of good governance. Not only governmental institutions but also the private sector and civil society organizations must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. Who is accountable to whom varies depending on whether decisions or actions taken are internal or external to an organization or institution. In general an organization or an institution is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions.

Draw up a list of public problems in your district and prioritize them. Give reasons for listing the problems as public problems and develop options for addressing the most pressing problem. (20 Marks)

Problem tree for the problems in Mubende district

List of problems in Mubende district

Reasons for listing the problems as public problems.

The Republic of Uganda has one of the fastest growing populations in the world. The high population growth rate as well as the high fertility rate led to today’s situation where more than 50 % of the population is below the age of 18 (Brown et al., 2019).

As a consequence of this high population growth, youth unemployment has risen sharply over the last couple of years. According to a survey carried out by ActionAid and the Uganda National NGO Forum, the unemployment rate among young people in Uganda is 61. 6 per-cent in 2012 (Baluku, et al., 2019). Given the fact that that more than 50 % of the population is below 18, the amount of unemployed people in Uganda is enormous. This can and will most likely have destabilizing and disturbing effects on the economy as well as the society at large of the country in the foreseeable future, as the youth is very often at the source of revolutions and political turmoil, of which the Arab Spring is just one example (Gready, 2013).

But the high growth rate of the Ugandan population is not the only possible reason for the in-creased number of youth being unemployed. General poverty, an outdated education system and corruption are only some of the reasons that are often mentioned in connection with youth unemployment in Africa, and more specifically in Uganda (Yaya, et al., 2019)..

Despite the existence of the large arable land most of the Ugandan youths have note been well equipped with the required skills of modern farming something can give the youths jobs readily due to the demand for food globally and also the abundance of arable land in Uganda.

Unemployment among the youths also brings challenges of the youths getting involved into criminal activities which in turn affects the society as whole. Countries with high youth unemployment like South Africa are facing the most challenges with the criminal activities this affects development and bring the country down.

Unemployment limits the potential of the country from achieving its development goals because the unemployed do not contribute to the economic productivity. Countries like South Korea which trained the youth and ensured that they get jobs are now one of the most developed and richest countries on earth.

Unemployment also limits the country’s tax base since the unemployed people rarely pay tax this therefore affects the national treasury and also increases the burden to the few tax payers in the country. In a developed country like Denmark the tax is enough to finance the government project due to the productivity of the population while poor countries like Uganda have very little tax and most of the government expenditure is finance through borrowing and donations.

Unemployment increases expenses to the government since the government has to allocate funds to cater for the jobless people to meet the basic needs of life like accommodation, feeding, education and health care. This burden therefore stifles the government’s ability to spend on critical sectors of the economy.

Poverty affects the country in many ways as it completely affects the country’s ability to deliver services to the people therefore it is imperative for the government to fight poverty and all the factors that cause poverty. Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making.

Limited agriculture output affects the country’s food basket potential. Most countries which are not able to produce enough food are at risk of hunger. For example The 1980s Ethiopia famine and hunger crisis was one of the worst humanitarian events of the 20th century, prompting a global response to bring food assistance and save lives. Ethiopia’s food shortages and hunger crisis from 1983 to 1985 led to an estimated 1 million famine deaths, (United Nations, 2010).

Poor education systems also leads to unemployment, when the education systems is mainly poor there is generally likely hood of unemployment and poverty this affects the ability of the country to develop. In countries like Botswana were the education system is poor there is generally high levels of unemployment and poverty. Since the unemployed do not contribute economically to the house hold and the country this has both long term and short term negative effects to the country.

OPTIONS FOR ADDRESSING THE MOST PRESSING PROBLEM

a) Public administration is the most relevant and important aspect of the policy making and implementation process. Assess the validity of this assertion. (10 marks)

The focus of public administration lies in providing public services. In addition to traditional services (administration, health care, school, transport services), they also include some “classical” administration activities in advanced countries, such as issuing licenses, permits, documents, certificates, providing information .

Public Administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as declared by the competent authorities. It deals with the problems and powers of the organization and techniques of management involved in carrying out the laws and policies formulated by the policy-making agencies of government.

A public policy is a deliberate and (usually) careful decision that provides guidance for addressing selected public concerns. Policy development can be seen, then, as a decision making process that helps address identified goals, problems or concerns. At its core, policy development entails the selection of a destination or desired objective (Hazelkom & Gibson, 2019).

Public administration is extremely relevant because of the following reasons;

An effective public administration helps in the fight against corruption since it is upon public administration to ensure transparency. The poor public administration can be observed in East African countries for example according to Transparency international, (2012) Uganda tops in corruption among the five countries under the East African community (EAC), a report by Transparency International has revealed, Kampala ranks a head of Tanzania and Kenya in second and third positions respectively. Burundi was ranked fourth as Rwanda continues to record the best record in fighting corruption. This indicates a public administration challenge in East African countries but mainly worse in Uganda (Grebel, 2012).

Public administration is designed for the good of the citizens of the country for example environmental policies of a given country. In the classical capitalist society, State was assigned a limited role and it was expected that the State would merely act as a regulator of social and economic activity and not its promoter. With the advent of planned view of development, State began to be perceived as an active agent in promoting and shaping societies in its various activities. For example the public administration policies like Promotion of employment opportunities and fighting climate change through the environmental policies all these are designed for the good of the citizens of the country.

An efficient public administration enhance the quality of health care. Health care in countries which are advanced like the united stated of America is effective and as aresult these countries have a long life span of more than 75 years and some advanced countries like Japan and Hong Kong the life span is more than 85 years while in countries with poor public administration system the life span is low

Public administration is responsible for decision making for a state and this gives rise to different policies that must be obeyed by the key stake holders of the state. These policies are concerned with the general welfare and development of the society, the programmes like provision of education and employment opportunities, economic stabilization, law and order enforcement, anti-pollution legislation etc. are the result of substantive policy formulation. These policies have vast areas of operation affecting the general welfare and development of the society as a whole.

Good public administration is an essential prerequisite for governments and institutions to achieve competitiveness and growth and fully functioning national public policy is also a prerequisite for effective democratic system. When a country has a strong public policy and administration it is able to achieve better economic performance and growth, this can be observed in the instances of some economies like in Botswana which has a strong and effective model public policy. In Botswana, the political leadership has been committed to the conception that proficient management of the economy depends on the quality of the public service (Dzimbiri, 2008).

Public administration has the capacity transparency in the country since without proper transparency and consideration of the citizens a public policy adopted by the government can be a failure. Policy makers should use a range of tools to help them think through and understand the need for, and consequences of, proposed policy interventions.

One of the main roles of Public administration is to ensure efficiency in service delivery by the government to the people, according to (Mampe, 2012), Service delivery is a contemporary issue for most governments and researchers alike. Most scholars are in agreement that public service delivery is critical to ensuring the national welfare and stimulation of economic development.

Though public administration is relevant they are also faced with the following challenges

Dictator ships in most government has failed public administration in delivering the services that people need most. Most of the dictators destroy the economy by passing order which favors their individual interest and not the country at large this therefore affects the economic development of the country and the main purpose for the public administration.

Corruption in most government has failed the public administration achieving its goals and responsibilities for example in most African countries like Nigeria, In 2012, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since the independence. In 2018, the country ranked 144th in the 180 countries listed in Transparency International’s Corruption Index (with Somalia, at 180th, being the most corrupt, and Denmark the least).

Globalization has affected public administration in most of the countries in Africa including Uganda, the movement toward greater interaction, integration, and interdependence among people and organizations across national borders is increasing transactions among countries in trade and investment and in the international flows of capital, people, technology, and information. It is evident in the growing levels of international political interaction and widespread social and cultural interchange that have occurred over the past quarter of a century. Globalization has brought both benefits and challenges to countries around the world. Globalization offers new economic opportunities but also imposes new political, social, technological, and institutional complexities, especially on poorer countries, that governments must address in order to stimulate more equitable economic and social development. In order to benefit from more open and widespread economic interaction, governments must support an economic system that promotes and facilitates the ability of business enterprises to compete effectively in international markets and of people at all economic levels to earn a decent livelihood.

But rapid globalization over the past two decades assured that governments could no longer carry on as usual, at least in terms of the functions and roles many of them played in the 1960s and 1970s. As the OECD has pointed out, by the 1980s governments were widely “criticized for their lack of capacity to respond quickly and effectively to strategic issues and for failing to leverage off opportunities in emerging markets offered by, among others, new technologies. Conflicts inherent in combining multiple roles (for instance, policymaker, regulator, monitor, competing service provider, funder), often with conflicting objectives, became obvious.

b) Examine the process through which problems become public problems and show how they are addressed by government. (10 marks).

The problems of the country are realized through the concerns of the people and this is normally debated by the elected representative of the people particularly the members of parliament who are people’s representatives.

For the problems to become a national problem it has to be raised by the community members through the elected officials like the members of parliament and the councilors and if there is consensus among the members of parliament therefore the problem will become the national problem.

It order to critically have better understanding of the steps that a problem goes through before it is identified it is better to analyze the steps below;

The steps below are the process through which the public problems are addressed by the government

8-Step Problem Solving Process

Step 1: Define the Problem

What is the problem?
When did the problem start and how long has this problem been going on?
Is there enough data available to contain the problem and prevent it from getting passed to the next process step? If yes, contain the problem.

Step 2: Clarify the Problem

What data is available or needed to help clarify, or fully understand the problem?
Is it a top priority to resolve the problem at this point in time?
Are additional resources required to clarify the problem?
Consider a Lean Event (Do-it, Burst, RPI, Project).
∙Ensure the problem is contained and does not get passed to the next process step.

Step 3: Define the Goals

What is your end goal or desired future state?
What will you accomplish if you fix this problem?
What is the desired timeline for solving this problem?

Step 4: Identify Root Cause of the Problem

Identify possible causes of the problem.
Prioritize possible root causes of the problem.
What information or data is there to validate the root cause?

Step 5: Develop Action Plan

Generate a list of actions required to address the root cause and prevent problem from getting to others.
Assign an owner and timeline to each action.
Status actions to ensure completion.

Step 6: Execute Action Plan

Implement action plan to address the root cause.
Verify actions are completed.

Step 7: Evaluate the Results

Monitor and Collect Data.
Did you meet your goals defined in step 3? If not, repeate th 8-Step Process.
Were there any unforeseen consequences?
If problem is resolved, remove activities that were added previously to contain the problem.

Step 8: Continuously Improve

Look for additional opportunities to implement solution.
Ensure problem will not come back and communicate lessons learned.
If needed, repeat the 8-Step Problem Solving Process to drive further improvements.

4 a) With specific examples, analyze the importance of social culture and the political environment in the policy making process. (10 marks)

Social culture and the political environment in the policy making process.

Culture refers to the ways of life of the members of society, or of groups within a society. It includes how they dress, their marriage customs, language and family life, their patterns of work, religious ceremonies and leisure pursuits (Giddens, 2005).

Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society’s shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions.

Sociocultural is a term related to social and cultural factors, which means common traditions, habits, patterns and beliefs present in a population group. The term is mostly used in sociologic and marketing contexts and refers to the most remarkable drivers behind the way people makes decisions in a society.

According to (Thei, 2010), The foundation of public policy is composed of national constitutional laws and regulations. Further substrates include both judicial interpretations and regulations which are generally authorized by legislation. Public policy is considered strong when it solves problems efficiently and effectively, serves justice, supports governmental institutions and policies, and encourages active citizenship.

Governments across the world are dealing with a common range of challenges that include how to manage water, food, infrastructure, health, education, social welfare, economic development, the environment, international relations, security, and governance systems. Yet, approaches that national governments and other stakeholders take to addressing these key public policy challenges can vary markedly between countries and regions. It is widely understood that social and cultural factors shape human behavior, and that the purpose of public policy is also to shape behavior, or as Coyle and Ellis (1994) put it: ‘culture affects policy, and policy affects culture’. It therefore stands to reason that having a solid understanding of culture, on top of the socio-economic drivers of human behavior which are commonly used in policy modelling and analysis, could help policy makers to shape public policies that might be more generally acceptable to the public and produce culturally desirable outcomes.

Policy ideas developed and implemented in one jurisdiction are often transferred to or transformed to meet the needs and objectives of other jurisdictions (McCann and Ward, 2012). However, such transfers are by no means always desired or implementable, due to a range of socio-political, economic, geographical and cultural differences that exist between jurisdictions. A better understanding of national culture and differences between national cultures could thus inform international policy transfer practices and joint policy learning exercises (e.g. looking at required adaptations to suit the receiving culture).

Culture is a strong part of people’s lives. It influences their views, their values, their humor, their hopes, their loyalties, and their worries and fears. It is therefore important to consider the culture of the people when designing a public policy so that policy is in line with their beliefs their culture and customs.

Through culture and political environment it is possible to determinant the needs of the people and therefore the country will be able to formulate the policies that best service the interest of the people for example the culture of the people in china is very different from that in Uganda, therefore the same public policies which work in work in Uganda will not be able to work in china.

The political system determines the allocation of resources basing on the future needs therefore before a public policy is made the political system is taken into consideration their helps in understanding the challenges the country is facing and designing appropriate political system that suites its ability to survive.

b) Of the many different forms of decentralization, which form do you think is more appropriate for your country? Support your answers with relevant examples. (10 Marks)

Decentralization is also one of the most vigorous policy choices in creating a more democratic and responsible government. In spite of its impacts and benefits so far, there is almost no contention among countries in promoting decentralization. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is a large and growing theoretical literature on decentralization (Cheema and Rondinelli 1983 and 2007).

Decentralization, or decentralizing governance, refers to the restructuring or reorganization of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance, while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels.

Decentralization could also be expected to contribute to key elements of good governance, such as increasing people’s opportunities for participation in economic, social and political decisions; assisting in developing people’s capacities; and enhancing government responsiveness, transparency and accountability.

Decentralization stimulates the search for program and policy innovation, first of all because it is, per se, an innovative practice of governance. Second, because through its implementation, local governments are required to assume new and broader responsibilities in order to provide public services for all. The assumption of new responsibilities through decentralization often requires improved planning, budgeting and management techniques and practices; the adoption of new tools; and the development of improved human resources to operate the decentralized programmes.”

The following are some of the types of decentralization

Deconcentration

Deconcentration involves the passing down of selected administrative functions to lower levels or units within government agencies or departments with the Centre remaining in control (Yuliani, 2004).

Deconcentration is a term used to describe the process whereby a central organization transfers some of its responsibilities to lower-level units within its jurisdiction. This process redistributes the balance of power and authority between the central administration and the other units in varying proportions (Aucoin and Bakvis, 1988).

Delegation

Delegation involves the assigning of certain responsibilities along with the necessary authority by a superior to his subordinate. Delegation is not a process of abdication. The person who delegates does not divorce himself/herself from the responsibility and authority with which s/he is entrusted. He remains accountable for the overall performance and also for the performance of his/her subordinates (Gaurav Akrani, 2010).

Delegation does not mean surrender of authority by the higher level manager; it only means transfer of certain responsibilities to subordinates and giving the subordinates the necessary authority, which is necessary to discharge the responsibility properly.

Categories of delegation

1) Specific: This is the type of delegations related to particular jobs or areas of responsibility.

2) General: this extends over a board area such as assisting in the general management of personnel production.

3) Verbal: Delegation could be given by word of mouth

4) Written: This is where duties and authorities are laid down in written words i.e. in black and white.

Devolution

The term devolution is derived from the Latin verb devolvere, meaning to roll down. In English, it has been used since the 16th century in civil law to refer to the descent of property through inheritance or legal succession. However, as early as the 1400s, devolution took on another sense: the passing of power or authority from one person or body to another. In an extension of this sense, the term today is used in political and administrative language to refer to the transfer of a power or jurisdiction, as well as, in some cases, the authority to control the resources associated with transferred responsibilities. In the sphere of public affairs, the concept of devolution is associated with a subsidiarity-based approach that gives lower-level units a larger role.

Basing on the situation it is imperative for the government of Uganda to adopt deconcetration as a method of decentralization because of the following reasons.

One of the main advantages of deconcentration is that the actions are based on deeper knowledge of local particularities and clienteles, for example the people at the lower levels are closer to the community members and therefore they are the ones who understand the key priorities of the people they represent.in Uganda it may be hard to understand the culture of some tribes like Baganda, Bateso, Karamojong and therefore it is imperative that the people at local administrative unites are the ones with the power to effect the change that is desired.

When the system of deconcetration is adopted by the country the Decisions are better adapted to local contexts and taken more rapidly. This is further because the local people feel that they are part of the decision making process and therefore they quickly adopt the decision.

Deconcetration develops team spirit. Due to delegation, effective communication develops between the central authority and lower level departments. This brings better relations and team spirit among the superiors and subordinates.

Deconcentration can improve quality of work by allowing the employees who have direct knowledge and interaction with clients to make decisions and complete tasks.

Quality can also improve through enhanced employee motivation. Employees may do a better job because they feel a personal accountability for the outcome, even though responsibility ultimately rests with the individual who made the delegation.

Deconcentration helps maintain cordial relationships. The central authority trust the local departments and give them necessary authority. The local authority accept their accountability and this develops cordial superior-subordinate relationships.

However on the other hand deconcentration may also lead to diminished uniformity, slackened control and the sidestepping of certain issues, with units in the hierarchy trying to shift responsibility to one other.

5 a) Good Policy implementation calls for prudent budgeting. How does budgeting facilitate successful policy implementation? (10 marks)

Successful budgeting enables the government in allocation of resources for example Uganda though is blessed with natural resources it still faces a multitude of challenges in resource allocation. Uganda also has some strengths in policy guidelines like the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) (now under review). PEAP offers political consensus and authority, which are crucial for effective laws and governance. If PEAP principles can help create effective petroleum and mineral laws, with improved governance regulations enforced at both a national and local community level, then there could be a smooth transition to a growing industry sector in Uganda. This could put Uganda on the path to a sustained high growth level, perhaps even 8%/year. Nevertheless, if petroleum and mineral revenues do go up sharply and/or fluctuate wildly there can be equally volatile performance in the macro-economy, especially in a small economy like that of Uganda.

Budgeting enables the country to manage costs that may prevent the country from achieving its goals and objectives. The budgeting process takes time and may alter a country’s understanding of what its key priorities are. Like many other management tools, the key is to determine whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

Budgeting enable the country to plan well so that it is place its resources in key sectors that actually matter. Some of the countries which have prioritized key sectors like education have been able to reap big for example Singapore which invested heavily in education has been able to transform significantly in only 30 years.

Through budgeting the country is able to fully liberalize its economy basing on its wishes and also the country can determine its future. Given the wide acceptance of the ideas of liberalization, privatization and globalization, both public and private administrations have to compete in the same area to provide services to people.

The key state organs are able to critically analyze their responsibly in the process of budgeting for example the dominance of executive or legislature in the budgeting process is a matter of debate as many consider the legislative to be an obstacle in the fast paced globalized economy where foreign direct investment and monetary funding from organizations like IMF and World Bank is of crucial importance to several democracies. There are several measures suggested to expedite the decision making process from fixing the term of the legislatures, introducing citizen panels, attaching funding power at local levels to bringing in two year budgetary cycle and special legislation regarding expenditure management.

Since the government expenditure is funded by a common pool of tax payer’s money and the policies that are formed with this money are further used to fund projects, the tax payers money is therefore able to be put into the right use as this will help in improving the economic prosperity of the country. The catch here lies in the fact that the people who actually are paying for these policies are the larger group while the people who benefit from these policies might be a much smaller group, which translates that one might not be enjoying the benefits for which one is paying money. Such scenario leads to an excessive spending of public money on policies which are not beneficial to the society as a whole.

The country is able to determine the previous financial years through budgeting this therefore enable the policy to take into account critical issues like Ethical code of employees; most ethical decisions have uncertain consequences. It might seem that ethical decisions in management are free of risk. In some countries there is a common practice paying bribe if you want to receive imported goods. Management ethics is needed to create a cultural environment in the company. However, quite a lot of managers are afraid to implement ethics in the workplace.

b) Using examples from a country of your choice, analyze the failure of policies that have been imposed on Sub-Saharan African countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and “Partners” from the Western World. (10 Marks)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 190 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

Privatization in Uganda;

Through the world bank the structural adjustment policies that required countries to privatize some of their key strategic sector has not worked in Uganda as this has come with several challenges to the Ugandan economy.

One of the biggest challenges of privatization is that it has led to high cost of goods like electricity. In Uganda before privatization of electricity the cost of electricity was affordable to Ugandans unlike now that electricity in Uganda is very expensive something has destroyed many business for example Umeme charges the first 15 units that you consume UGX 250 per unit. 2. The proceeding units are charged UGX 755.1 per unit, while countries were electricity is owned by the government it in some cases given free of charge for example Turkmenistan.

Despite privatization in Uganda electricity coverage is still very poor since Access to electricity (% of population) in Uganda was reported at 41.3 % in 2019, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources, this therefore shows that privatization has stifled electricity coverage.

Uganda’s favorable enabling environment and broad presence of private sector investment presents a unique opportunity to deliver on Power Africa goals. Uganda is one of the few sub-Saharan African countries to have liberalized and financially viable energy markets, with generation, transmission and supply segments unbundled since 2001. There is an independent Electricity Regulatory Authority that undertakes sector regulation and oversight. The largest distribution company, UMEME (link is external), is privately owned and has a 20-year concession for distribution and retail. The country, however, is divided into 13 rural service territories, and 6 of these are being managed by small distribution companies. Independent power producers (IPPs) currently account for nearly 60% of generation capacity. Issues with integrated planning and the financial ecosystem persist.

Privatization has also led to corruption in Uganda since the senior government officials to some extend received the kickbacks from the company buyers. Most of the former government parastatls were sold off to the political class and this has completely left the majority of citizens in the country with poverty (Bassett, 2020).

Privatization has also led to more poverty in Uganda as most of the private companies in Uganda are owned by foreigners and to large extend they have not developed the local communities who own the land that has the natural resources like Tororo cement in Tororo they have exploited the resources at the expense of the community members. The communities’ members are spectators of their natural resources and this has led to more poverty in the area.

Privatization has also increased led to profit repatriation in Uganda that has further led to more poverty since the owners of capital are mostly foreigners. A report on Uganda’s banking sector has established that more than Shs528b, which accounts for 72 per cent of the total profits after tax made by banks in Uganda, was at risk of capital flight in 2019, daily monitor (Monday August, 24 2020).

Despite Uganda privatizing most of its assets, Uganda is still one of the poorest countries in the world and according to World Bank despite privatization Uganda is still one of the poorest countries in the world. The world Estimates that GDP per capita in Uganda is expected to reach 860.00 USD by the end of 2020, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts’ expectations. In the long-term, the Uganda GDP per capita is projected to trend around 935.00 USD in 2021 and 970.00 USD in 2022, this therefore indicates that Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world despite having adopted privatization.

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