Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Uganda was characterized by immense political
turmoil and economic collapse that negatively affected the performance, service delivery,
management, and financial viability of the civil service. Idi Amin’s military dictatorship
coupled with Milton Obote’s subsequent authoritarian rule destroyed most mechanisms
of administrative, political, and financial accountability, thereby eliminating effective
management, monitoring, and control within the civil service. When the National
Resistance Movement (NRM) took over power in 1986, it found the country traumatized
by civil war and state terror and the public service inefficient, demoralized, unresponsive,
and corrupt. The NRM government with the support of the World Bank set up the Public
Service Review and Reorganization Commission (PSRRC) in 1989, to examine the
problems and to make appropriate recommendations. The Commission found that the
Uganda Public Service was bloated in structure, inefficient, and generally a poor
performer. The PSRRC made numerous recommendations on how to revamp the Service
namely;