PRC RESOLUTION NO. IV OF 2002

ECONOMY AND SOCIAL SERVICES

1. The Party Representative Council (PRC) at its special meeting held at Uganda House on May 24, 2002, noted with great concern the pathetic state of the economy and social services in the country.
2. The UPC is aware that social services have deteriorated with years of the Movement administration to such a level that poverty amongst the citizens of Uganda has become widespread and unprecedented.  The basic daily needs of the people like food, salt, soap, clothing, medicare etc. have become impossible to meet for the majority of citizens.  Second hand clothing for instance, has become the standard attire of the citizens.  Both the rural and urban dwellers now find getting one meal a day an unpredictable prospect.
3. 3. Access to quality education for the children of Uganda has remained problematic despite the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE).   The level of poverty and rampant corruption have rendered parents unable to provide scholarstic materials let alone clothing to their children to take advantage of UPE.   Inadequate trained manpower and physical infrastructure and funding have meant continued deterioration of the quality of education especially in the rural areas. Post primary education has become unaffordable for most Ugandans.  It is now the preserve of the children of the ruling
   corrupt class.
4. Noted that the Movement government has consistently continued to mislead the people of Uganda and the international community about the economy.  It is peddled around that the economy has been growing at the rate of between 5% to 7% annually for the last so many years. Unfortunately this purported growth is not reflected in reality on the ground.  As a matter of fact Uganda's economy is a debt ridden economy.
5. UPC is concerned that privatization of parastatal enterprises has been riddled with corruption, nepotism and total lack of transparency, naked misappropriation of national resources and absence of accountability of the proceeds from the sale of these enterprises.  The citizens of Uganda have been denied the benefits of privatization hence the loss of valuable national assets.
6. UPC recognises that health is crucial in the growth and development of any country, the availability and provision of health care and medicare are therefore imperative.  Yet aware that inspite of much publicised increase in health centres and the face lift given
   to others, the shortages if not lack of drugs and trained personnel have continued to frustrate access and provision of health services to the majority of the citizens of Uganda.  Unashamedly, a few people in positions of authority or influence have found it fashionable to have even basic  medical check up in the most expensive clinics abroad at public expense.  UPC has reliable information that even one quarter of the funds used to send VIPs abroad would be enough to equip our hospitals with facilities to treat all citizens in Uganda.
7. Noted the sorry state of the rural feeder roads and the main highway networks, which have deteriorated due to the collapse of the maintenance scheme at the district headquarters, under the weight of corruption and nepotism.  This lead to the failure in the marketing of agricultural produce from rural areas and indeed affected the movement of persons and services.   The rail network serving the west and north-eastern parts of the country were deliberately abandoned, if not vandalised while the only national airline was mismanaged and liquidated corruptly.  All waterway services like ferries, steamers
   and ships have been vandalised and rendered waste.
8. Noted that the banking facilities especially at the rural areas, meticulously put in place by the UPC governments through Uganda Commercial Bank and Cooperative Bank over the years were dismantled and stolen.  Private banks like International Credit Bank (ICB) and Greenland were used as conduits to steal private and public funds. Access to banking for the rural population has been deliberately extinguished.
9. UPC is aware that the infrastructure for the marketing of agricultural produce was deliberately undermined, dismantled and given away to crooked so-called foreign investors who now buy farmers' produce at peanuts prices.  There are genuine fears that
   funds under NSSF are soon to be stolen in the name of privatisation. The people of Uganda are left anxious about their hard-earned savings.
10. The decentralization exercise has been a dismal failure because, while the provision of services were transferred to the districts and lower units, actual power and funds were retained at the centre and are locally supervised by the NRA cadres called RDCs, and DISOs. This crippled the effective implementation of the whole concept of decentralisation.
11. The movement politics has destroyed Uganda's sense of nationalism and social harmony that had been built over the years amongst the citizens of Uganda.  Currently, people are driven into parochial and petty tribal, ethnic and sometimes clan conflicts.  This is so because people have been distracted from looking at Uganda as a nation state.  They have been induced to looking at the local politics as a means to an end.  The classic example is what is happening in Kibaale, Karamoja, Kyenjojo etc.

1. That an independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances under which the economic and social infrastructure of the country was corruptly undermined, dismantled and stolen off under the pretext of privatisation of public enterprises be set up and those responsible
   be brought to justice.
2. That further privatisation of state enterprises should be halted pending the report of the judicial inquiry referred to above.
3. UPC demand the effective transfer of power to accompany the transferred services to the lower echelons of local government.  This can be best achieved under a federal arrangement.
4. (iv) UPC demands that sales proceeds from the parastatals be published, accounted for and debated by Parliament.
5. That the movement government whose social and economic policies have been a dismal failure and which has lost moral authority to govern, should open up the political space to allow political parties to publicly offer alternative social and economic policies to the electorate at general elections.  The NRM government which under legal notice No. 1 of 1986 came to power through the barrel of the gun and over the dead bodies of thousands of innocent citizens of Uganda and maintained itself in power by the same gun, should now return power to the citizens of Uganda for them to freely choose in a free and fair election the people to govern them.