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Uganda ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT
Unavailable
Figure 6. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Sector, Fiscal Year 1989
Source: Based on information from Uganda, Ministry of Planning and
Economic Development, Background to the Budget, 1990-1991, Kampala,
1990, 158; and Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Uganda,
Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, No. 1, London, 1991, 3.
In 1986 the newly established Museveni regime committed
itself to reversing the economic disintegration of the
1970s and
1980s. Museveni proclaimed the national economic
orientation to
be toward private enterprise rather than socialist
government
control. Many government policies were aimed at restoring
the
confidence of the private sector. In the absence of
private
initiatives, however, the government took over many
abandoned or
formerly expropriated companies and formed new parastatal
enterprises. In an effort to bring a measure of financial
stability to the country and attract some much-needed
foreign
assistance in 1987, it also initiated an ambitious RDP
aimed at
rebuilding the economic and social infrastructure.
Officials then
offered to sell several of the largest parastatals to
private
investors, but political and personal rivalries hampered
efforts
toward privatization throughout 1988 and 1989.
In Museveni's first three years in office, the role of
government bureaucrats in economic planning gave rise to
charges
of official corruption. A 1988 audit accused government
ministries and other departments of fraudulently
appropriating
nearly 20 percent of the national budget. The audit cited
the
Office of the President, the Ministry of Defense, and the
Ministry of Education. Education officials, in particular,
were
accused of paying salaries for fictitious teachers and
paying
labor and material costs for nonexistent building
projects. In
order to set a public example in 1989, Museveni dismissed
several
high-level officials, including cabinet ministers, who
were
accused of embezzling or misusing government funds.
Data as of December 1990
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