Members of Parliament during a plenary session at Parliament. Under Article 91(3) of the Constitution, any Bill may become law without the President’s signature if he/she returns it to Parliament two times. PHOTO/David Lubowa
President Yoweri Museveni’s decision not to sign into law the Appropriation Bill, 2024 passed by Parliament on May 16th, was the first of its kind in his nearly 40 year-reign as the Head of State.
While the President has on several occasions returned Bills to Parliament, this time round, it happened after all the required checklists were exhausted, including delivering the budget speech which is the statement of the executive’s overall budget policy for the financial year, indicating key policy proposals.
As a result of this unusual development, experts are now questioning the seriousness of the executive arm of government when handling budget matters and processes.
For starters, an Appropriation Bill is a government-proposed law containing the amount of money to be spent by each government ministry, department, agencies and even local governments. Without it, it becomes illegal to authorise any withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund – national treasury.
According to the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Patrick Ocailap, the Appropriation Bill is a routine exercise performed every financial year. He says it must be approved by Parliament and assented to – signed into law by the President before any expenditure for the financial year is legally done.
“Once assented to by the President, it becomes an Act meaning government expenditure can be legally incurred. This is a process that happens every financial year as per the law and the President must assent to it before any expenditure takes place,” says Mr Ocailap when contacted on Friday.
Once the first citizen of the country made his feelings known about Appropriation Bill, Parliament was quickly reconvened to reinstate Shs750 billion that he said was reallocated away from the Financial Year 2024/25 government priorities.
Why it matters
Although the President’s decline to sign the Appropriation Bill is within his mandate, there are some limitations.
Article 154(4) of the Uganda Constitution and Section 14(3) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) 2015 allow the President to authorise the issuance of funds from the Consolidated Fund in situations where the Appropriation Act has not come into operation by the start of the financial year.
In this regard, if this impasse continues, the government has until October 2024 to finalise the budget using this legal framework, referred to as a vote on account, which runs for four months from the beginning of the financial year.
This reflects what many experts have criticised as the casual handling of a crucial exercise like the national budget, which estimates the country’s income and expenditure for the year.
Note that the budget is a promise to send resources to pay for specific services and outputs across the government and to raise those resources responsibly – therefore, this is no joking matter! The Government spends around 14 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in Uganda on key services for the whole population.
“The priorities the government sets, the promises it makes through the budget, and the government’s performance against the budget, have an important effect on the services you receive,” reads the Ministry of Finance budget information website.
Other reactions
Despite that, how President Museveni sent back the Appropriation Bill to parliament with conditions to reinstate the Shs750 billion elicited some reactions.
“This speaks to lack of proper planning and coordination while preparing the budget,” says the executive director, CSBAG, Mr Julius Mukunda when interviewed for this article on Friday.
The national budget analysts continued: “Whereas there are legal provisions allowing the President to express concerns over the Bill in this particular situation, there was no circumstance warranting reviewing the budget because there was no emergency apart from poor coordination and planning in the national budget process.
“This is a problem that falls on the executive arm of the government. By the time the changes were made they had three weeks before reading of the budget- all those changes could have been done.
“To wait until the budget is read and then raise these issues, is not right. Going forward, they need to read word by word and look at all the figures and ensure their interest and needs are properly catered for and protected,” he concludes.
Mr Mukunda’s views are shared by the members of Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) and various policy analysts, who disapproved of the President’s decision not to sign the Appropriation Bill, 2024 passed by Parliament on 16th May 2024. As a result, the Clerk to Parliament on 26th June 2024, recalled Parliament from recess for a plenary sitting on 2nd July 2024.
In his communication to Parliament, the President declined to assent to the Appropriation Bill, 2024 and required Parliament to reinstate the Shs750 billion which was hastily done, warning that any reallocation from government priorities shouldn’t be done before consulting the executive arm of government – the cabinet.
The Appropriation Bill was signed into law by President Museveni on July 04, 2024.
