Enhancing Property Rates Administration, Collection and Enforcement in Uganda: The Case of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and four other Municipalities

Uganda was among the first African countries to embrace a decentralised system of government in the 1990s. The objective of this policy was to bring services closer to the people while at the same time enhancing local participation and democracy. The success of decentralisation was, however, greatly dependent on the amount of funds and other resources available to local governments. Before it was scrapped, graduated tax – a form of poll tax – contributed a significant part of local government own source revenue. Following its abolition, local service and local hotel taxes were introduced to compensate for the loss in revenue. Recent studies, however, show that collections from these two taxes are highly inadequate and that local governments are highly dependent on central government grants in running their operations. This undermines the whole essence of decentralisation which, among other things, aims at strengthening the autonomy of local governments. Be that as it may, the recent population surge and boom in urban areas especially has seen property rates emerge as an important source of own source funding for local governments. The challenge, however, is that while property rates present a huge potential for closing the existing funding gap in most local governments, they are for the most part poorly enforced. Using experiences from the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and four other municipalities, this paper makes a case for reform of the property rates regime in Uganda. This includes proposals for the amendment of the law to remove exemptions for owner-occupied property, imposing rates on vacant urban land, using ICT processes in collection and enforcement, creating revenue collection units in municipalities, and setting up ratepayers associations to engage the urban authorities on effective collection and use of property rates

What Explains the Recent Calls for Reinstatement of a Tax Considered Unpopular? An Analysis of Graduated Tax in Uganda

Successful decentralisation relies heavily on the ability of subnational government to generate its own revenue. In many African countries, subnational government is authorised to collect a variety of taxes and user fees including trade licensing taxes, property taxes, market fees, garbage collection fees and road user fees. With the exception of property taxes, which have the potential to generate significant revenue, most other taxes collectively fund a very small proportion of subnational government budgets. Until recently, one of the main sources of own revenue for subnational government in Uganda was a poll tax known as graduated tax. Tanzania and Kenya had a similar tax, referred to respectively as the development levy and graduated personal tax. However, the tax was abolished in Kenya in 1974, in Tanzania in 2003 and in Uganda in 2005. The reasons for abolishing the tax in the three countries were similar, and included the fact that it relied on coercive enforcement, the costs of collection were quite high and it disproportionately affected the poor. In Uganda, however, there have recently been calls – within and outside government – for the reintroduction of the tax. Our research seeks to answer the question: what explains the calls for the introduction of a tax that was largely unpopular? We find two main explanations. First, graduated tax was the main source of revenue for local government in Uganda and there has been no adequate replacement for it. Second, the tax was a symbol of pride for some men, and encouraged productivity. Women – particularly in rural areas – feel that its abolition reduced the productivity of men.Department for International Development (DFID)Bill and Melinda Gates Foundatio

Environmental laws and policies related to periodic flooding and sedimentation in the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) of East Africa

What should a community of three states with diverse historical profiles of legal and regulatory frameworks do when a common ecological resource is threatened any yet is critical in the sustenance of communities around it? This is the challenge that East African States faced with dealing with Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) in East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi). Given the various ecological, land and demographic changes in the LVB, various institutions have attempted to address the negative changes and contribute towards poverty reduction and environmental restoration. This paper analyzed the existing laws and policies on periodic flooding and sedimentation of wetlands, rivers and flood plains, which is timely and important for improved management and utilisation of resources of LVB. The paper argues that the lack of community level policy models relating to land and water use affects soil management and ultimately affects the water used in the LVB. These area-specific policies and models all over the LVB will go a long way in dealing with the negative effects of periodic flooding and sedimentation.Key words: Lake Victoria, Basin, East Africa, sedimentation, periodic flooding, environment, law

Strengthening health system governance using health facility service charters: a mixed methods assessment of community experiences and perceptions in a district in Kenya.

BACKGROUND: Enhancing accountability in health systems is increasingly emphasised as crucial for improving the nature and quality of health service delivery worldwide and particularly in developing countries. Accountability mechanisms include, among others, health facilities committees, suggestion boxes, facility and patient charters. However, there is a dearth of information regarding the nature of and factors that influence the performance of accountability mechanisms, especially in developing countries. We examine community members' experiences of one such accountability mechanism, the health facility charter in Kericho District, Kenya. METHODS: A household survey was conducted in 2011 among 1,024 respondents (36% male, 64% female) aged 17 years and above stratified by health facility catchment area, situated in a division in Kericho District. In addition, sixteen focus group discussions were conducted with health facility users in the four health facility catchment areas. Quantitative data were analysed through frequency distributions and cross-tabulations. Qualitative data were transcribed and analysed using a thematic approach. RESULTS: The majority (65%) of household survey respondents had seen their local facility service charter, 84% of whom had read the information on the charter. Of these, 83% found the charter to be useful or very useful. According to the respondents, the charters provided useful information about the services offered and their costs, gave users a voice to curb potential overcharging and helped users plan their medical expenses before receiving the service. However, community members cited several challenges with using the charters: non-adherence to charter provisions by health workers; illegibility and language issues; lack of expenditure records; lack of time to read and understand them, often due to pressures around queuing; and socio-cultural limitations. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study suggest that improving the compliance of health facilities in districts across Kenya with regard to the implementation of the facility service charter is critical for accountability and community satisfaction with service delivery. To improve the compliance of health facilities, attention needs to be focused on mechanisms that help enforce official guidelines, address capacity gaps, and enhance public awareness of the charters and their use

"The role of prosecutors in preventing torture and ill-treatment of accused persons and proposals for reform

Apresenta um panorama do papel dos promotores em Uganda para prevenir a tortura e os maus-tratos de pessoas acusadas, especificando os deveres dos promotores neste assunto. Dispõe de algumas informações sobre o mandato do Gabinete do Diretor do Ministério Público e dos tipos de Promotores existentes em Uganda atualmente. ugere a necessidade de reformas visando melhores investigações sobre crimes de tortura perpetrados naquele país

Investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons cases in the Bahamas and Uganda: a comparative analysis = Investigando e processando casos de tráfico de pessoas nas Bahamas e em Uganda: uma análise comparativa

Analisa os esforços e medidas tomadas por Bahamas e Uganda para investigar e processar os acusados de tráfico de pessoas, com o objetivo de prevenir e mitigar este crime em evolução que atravessa fronteiras

Levels, trends and determinants of technical efficiency of general hospitals in Uganda: data envelopment analysis and Tobit regression analysis

General hospitals provide a wide range of primary and secondary healthcare services. They accounted for 38% of government funding to health facilities, 8.8% of outpatient department visits and 28% of admissions in Uganda in the financial year 2016/17. We assessed the levels, trends and determinants of technical efficiency of general hospitals in Uganda from 2012/13 to 2016/17. Methods We undertook input-oriented data envelopment analysis to estimate technical efficiency of 78 general hospitals using data abstracted from the Annual Health Sector Performance Reports for 2012/13, 2014/15 and 2016/17. Trends in technical efficiency was analysed using Excel while determinants of technical efficiency were analysed using Tobit Regression Model in STATA 15.1. Results The average constant returns to scale, variable returns to scale and scale efficiency of general hospitals for 2016/17 were 49% (95% CI, 44–54%), 69% (95% CI, 65–74%) and 70% (95% CI, 65–75%) respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the efficiency scores of public and private hospitals. Technical efficiency generally increased from 2012/13 to 2014/15, and dropped by 2016/17. Some hospitals were persistently efficient while others were inefficient over this period. Hospital size, geographical location, training status and average length of stay were statistically significant determinants of efficiency at 5% level of significance. Conclusion The 69% average variable returns to scale technical efficiency indicates that the hospitals could generate the same volume of outputs using 31% (3439) less staff and 31% (3539) less beds. Benchmarking performance of the efficient hospitals would help to guide performance improvement in the inefficient ones. There is need to incorporate hospital size, geographical location, training status and average length of stay in the resource allocation formula and adopt annual hospital efficiency assessments