Access to Rural Non-Farm Livelihoods - Natural Resources Institute

Production 10 ; Education; Health & Environment; Community Services; and Works & Public
Transport, as well as police and prison administration, etc.
The broad view in Rakai is that administrators were more powerful than elected officials until
the 1998 local government elections, when a much stronger political leadership came to
office, improving the balance of power.
In 1992/3 the Civil Service Reform Programme led to extensive restructuring and
reorganising of administrations and merging and streamlining of departments nation-wide. In
Rakai, many district employees were retrenched; those remaining were given training to
bring their skills up to date, and, in addition, a small number of qualified and competent new
personnel were recruited. This new smaller, but more effective, workforce was re-equipped
and retooled, with improved transport facilities and office space and equipment.
In 1993 Rakai was one of the first districts in the country to be decentralised. Under
decentralisation, the functions, powers, and responsibilities of government are transferred
from the centre to local governments so that decisions are made as close as possible to the
people, and local solutions are found to local problems.
In addition to political decentralisation, there has also been financial decentralisation. All
revenue generated within the district is retained 11 . Most district revenues are actually
collected at the sub-county level 12 : of the total amount collected, 35% is remitted up to the
district level, with the remaining 65% distributed amongst the lower levels: 65% (of the 65%
remaining) stays with the LCIII that collected it, while 25% is divided amongst all of the
LCIs in the sub-county 13 . Finally, 5% is remitted up to the LCIV, and 5% divided amongst
the LCIIs in the sub-county to support their administrative functions. In 1997/8, 15% of the
district’s total revenue was locally generated 14 .
However, a much larger portion of the district’s revenue comes from transfers from central
government 15 . In 1997/8 these made up 73% of the district’s total revenue, albeit with a large
portion ear-marked for teachers’ salaries.
The remainder comes from direct donor support to the district administration: in 1997/8, 8%
of the district’s total revenue came from Danida through the RDDP 16 , and 4% came from
10 The Production Department is a new department resulting from restructuring under the Civil Service Reform
Programme. It comprises several sub-departments: Agriculture; Veterinary; Fisheries; Forestry; and Marketing,
Co-operatives, & Trade, which were formerly all separate departments.
11 Town Councils are fully autonomous, and control their own finances, i.e., they do not remit locally collected
taxes to the district, and receive their own direct grants from central government.
12 This is primarily (90%) from collection of graduated tax – other locally generated revenue (8%) comes from
market and landing site fees, business licenses, and transaction fees (e.g., on the sale of cattle or fish). The
register of graduated tax payers has almost doubled since 1998, and currently includes approximately 62,000
people.
13 Because of the large number of LCIs however, this does not work out to very much per village – for example
in 1997/8 the average amount per village was about 158,000 shillings (approximately US $140). This is almost
entirely consumed by seating allowances for committee members, who are not otherwise paid for their work.
14 In 1998/9, however locally collected revenues were less than half those of the previous year as a result of very
poor coffee harvests.
15 Central government collects revenue through the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) from corporation taxes,
VAT, import duties, fuel duties, boat license fees, etc. It also receives direct donor support for sectoral
programmes, and borrows.
16 6% for recurrent expenses, and 2% for capital investment.
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