Uganda, April 28 -- Parliament last week merged several government agencies and a few others singled out by lawmakers received a saving grace on the premise that their role is critical to service delivery.

Among the agencies not merged are the National Forestry Authority, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, the National Agricultural Advisory Services, the Dairy Development Authority, and the Uganda Cotton Development Authority.

However, policy analysts argue that the much-vaunted rationalisation policy to avoid the duplicity of roles across the civil service- meant to save the government an estimated Shs1 trillion in expenditure- is flawed.

This comes at the time the funds doled out on a bloated public administration outstrips the...