By Ndawula Ronald
On 4th of july 2003 I happened to visit the ocean city beach in New Jersey a leading family resort with beaches and getaways.
I wanted to go for a short call and searched around for rest rooms (toilets).
I was surprised to find a long organised line of people lined up stretching about 30 metres, all organised to come for the service at the restroom.
None was overtaking and there was no police officer to control the crowd but a sense of responsibility ingrained in each reveller that first come first serve.
No one cared about any anybody but a responsibility and respect for one another.
Last year I applied for the renewal of my driving licence.
I expected a rigorous exercise where I needed brokers and third parties to do the work for me at a price.
I was ready to foot the bill because I know the problem of driving without a permit on Uganda roads and the consequences there of.
When I paid the money on diamond trust bank i took the receipt at Uganda railways in a very organised place with police managing the line and no one by passes the other!
They took my received payment form in an organised sequence and referred me to another till where photos were being taken and was referred to another section where I received the licence in less than 2 hours without brokers to assist or charge me!
This seems simple as I received a Maryland, USA driving license in record time without a broker which was like a miracle to me.
Max Weber theory
of Bureaucracy proposes, “that all business tasks must be divided among the employees. The basis for the division of tasks should be competencies and functional specializations. In this way, the workers will be well aware of their role and worth in the organization and what is expected of them”.
This is what’s happening at the Ministry of works driving license section!
This in Uganda is a new phenomenon and the ideal way of doing things.
Whoever is behind this, is doing his work well and in Luganda we have a saying, ‘ ekye’ nyanja kiva kumutwe okuvunda’. (When the fish is to go bad it starts with the head?
It means when you want to know the status of the fish you have to check the status of the head.
This is therefore to take the opportunity to thank the head, Hon.Minister of Works General Katumba Wamala for the work weldone.
In this, I call upon all those responsible for the wellbeing of Ugandans in different sectors to learn to understand that you work for the people and it makes us happy to get services efficiently and effectively.
Why would you wish to search to know your land title status through a broker at the Land office?
You pay a search fee of shs 25000 and the broker wants 500,000!
Therefore, I concur with Hon Min. Mayanja to remove brokers at the land offices across the country and they concentrate on doing their brokerage among parties but not for the Zonal land offices.
Disorder is one major challenge which has perpetuated corruption and traffic jams in Uganda and when we can plug this then you will see Education and Health sectors improve naturally without effort.
Ndawula Ronald, the author is the former chairperson of Luwero district
