CSOs want strict laws on supplementary budgets
Members of Parliament during the plenary session at Parliament on February 28, 2023. PHOTO | DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Mr Steven Alor, an Economist at CSBAG alleged that the majority of the funds fetched through supplementary budgets were instead spent on recurrent expenditure, something that contravenes the original purpose of such funds as entailed in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 2015
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have asked Parliament to use their powers to compel the government to reduce on the ‘appetite’ for supplementary budgets.
The CSO fraternity led by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) asked lawmakers on the budget committee to lead an initiative that will ensure that funds secured through supplementary budgets are rightly applied and hence serve their purpose.
Mr Steven Alor, an Economist at CSBAG alleged that the majority of the funds fetched through supplementary budgets were instead spent on recurrent expenditure, something that contravenes the original purpose of such funds as entailed in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 2015.
“PFMA 2015 provides for the use of supplementary financing to cater for absorbable, unavoidable, and unforeseeable and must be within the approved budget of that financial year. From the recently tabled supplementary budget of Shs3.5 trillion presented to Parliament on November 29, 2023, approximately Shs2 trillion was towards recurrent expenditure, with a large proportion set towards addressing shortfalls in expenditure, including teachers’ salaries,” he noted on Monday.
He further noted that more disappointments are registered in circumstances where huge sums of money are endorsed for investment in projects that never take off for instance Lubowa Hospital.
“This shows abuse of the supplementary provision, fiscal indiscipline, and poor forecast of the Wage Bill for Local Governments but also indicates poor planning practices within MDAs,” Mr Alor said.
To remedy the aforementioned situation in the country, the CSOs urged lawmakers to focus on enacting strict legislation especially by effecting provisions within the PFMA, 2015 to make it harder for the government to divert funds drawn through supplementary budgets.
The vice-chairperson of the budget committee Mr Remigio Achia promised to present CSOs’ suggestions to the government.
The interface between the CSOs and legislators happened at the tail-end of the process of a lengthy process in which the budget committee considers reports from sectoral committees to inform the details to be considered and feed into the final report of the 2024/25 National Budget Framework Paper.
The committee is thereafter expected to deliberate upon various submissions made and decide on what is carried in the report to be tabled before Parliament possibly later this week in a bid to form the final shape of the 2024/25 National Budget.
