President Yoweri Museveni, who is also the National Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), on Friday 2nd February 2024 met the party's parliamentary caucus at State House, Entebbe.
During the meeting, the President and the Members of Parliament discussed the Rationalization of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX).
“This subject we are dealing with is a strategic one. If you don't answer strategic answers correctly, you end up with problems and when you answer them correctly, you win,” he said.
Museveni further informed the caucus members that if the government decides to carry out rationalization now, they will save Shs1 trillion a year.
“When we talk of rationalization, we are talking of first of all, doing things which are rational and save money.”
He added that during rationalization, the whole structure of the government should be geared to support the wealth creators, since they are vital in the development of the country.
“This issue of rationalization is a strategic one and the way to handle it is to start by asking the question that Adam Smith answered in 1776 when he wrote a book titled “The source of the wealth of nations”, the question is where does wealth come from? Because there's no way any group of leaders will succeed if they do not answer that question. That is why you find a lot of chaos in so many parts of the world,” the President said.
“Wealth creation is the issue of enabling families and companies as well as individuals to produce goods and services and sell them and do so with “ekibaro”. Now who are these wealth creators? Number one, the commercial farmers, the second are the manufacturers, the third are the service providers and then ICT. So, what do this need? They need peace, the infrastructure (such as the roads, railways, electricity), they also need capital, skills and technical support.”
The President also advised the legislators that if they want to be successful politicians, they must help the people they serve to create wealth through sensitising them to embrace the four sectors of the economy.
The Government Chief Whip and Chairperson of the NRM Parliamentary caucus, Denis Hamson Obua, said as a caucus they support the rationalization of government agencies and public expenditure through the enactment of legislation in Parliament, sector by sector.
During the same meeting, Bukoto South MP, Twaha Kagabo, who belongs to the opposition-National Unity Platform (NUP), committed himself to work with the ruling party for the betterment of the people he serves.
