Parliament has given the green light to the proposal for the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) to take over civil registration, specifically civil marriages, from the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB). However, the transition will be conducted gradually to allow NIRA sufficient time to enhance its capacity.
Richard Oseku, representing Kibale County, relayed concerns raised by the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee regarding NIRA’s readiness to handle the smooth transfer of URSB’s functions without disrupting or compromising service delivery to the public.
Members expressed worries that if the transition process is not carefully managed and coordinated, the public may face challenges arising from NIRA’s lack of readiness to fulfill its new mandate. Coordination between NIRA and URSB is deemed essential to ensure that functions are transferred only after NIRA has acquired the capacity to deliver effectively.
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Nobert Mao, defended the proposal, emphasizing the need to streamline registration processes. He stated, “The purpose of this bill is to transfer the registration of marriages to NIRA. We have already transferred the registration of birth and death, so we want to move this to its proper address.”
This decision follows recent concerns raised by MPs on the Defense and Internal Affairs Committee regarding NIRA’s limited space and reliability at its headquarters in Kololo, often disrupted by hosting state functions. To address this, Parliament approved an additional allocation of Shs20 billion in the NIRA budget for securing new office space.
In a related development, Parliament rejected the government’s proposal to disband the National Forestry Authority and transfer its functions to the Ministry of Water and Environment. MPs argued that NFA plays a crucial role in environmental protection and should not be absorbed into another ministry.
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