Prime
Govt agencies to share Shs900b in new supplementary budget
State minister for Finance Henry Musasizi presents to Parliament the National Budget Framework Paper during plenary session on December 21, last year. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
The biggest allocatee is the Office of the President, which intends to undertake research and innovation at Shs27b and provide Shs141b to Kiira Motors.
Some 31 government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are to share Shs913b in supplementary budget, with most expenditure planned on non-emergencies, and three months to the start of next financial year.
The biggest allocatee is the Office of the President, which intends to undertake research and innovation at Shs27b and provide Shs141b to Kiira Motors.
Other planned expenditures are for refurbishing Mandela National Stadium Namboole, paying allowances for government-sponsored students at public universities, rent for offices, and construction of oncology (cancer treatment) centres.
The Defence ministry is taking Shs7.5b for classified expenditure, which is not subject to public scrutiny, and another Shs71b to cover operational shortfalls, while the domestic spy agency, Internal Security Organisation (ISO), has asked for Shs10b for “emergency operational commitments [and] intelligence collection”.
The Shs913b requisition in supplementary budget is about two percent of the Shs44.7 trillion running budget, and under the three percent emergency drawdown permissible in law.
Majority of the items in the supplementary budget requests are non-emergencies such as staff recruitment, vehicle procurement, clearance of pending contractual debts, and mindset change and community mobilisation, which should have been provided for in the regular sector budgets.
It remained unclear why they are being asked for under emergency allocation.
Section 25(6) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015, permits Parliament or the minister of Finance to approve a supplementary appropriation, financed from the Contingencies Fund, only when “unabsorbable, unavoidable and unforeseeable”.
Our analysis shows that developments such as invasion of armyworms ravaging farmlands in about 40 districts, troubled implementation of the new abridged school curriculum, and renewed refugee influx which, among other things, would constitute emergencies in the country, are not provided for.
Neither is there a provision for payment of health workers hastily drafted to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, but sent home last month empty-handed.
In contrast, Shs7.6b has been allocated as court awards to Ambitious Construction Company Ltd, Amugoli General Enterprises Ltd, Arab Contractors Ltd and Vambeco Enterprises Ltd.
Uganda Police Force is poised to get an additional Shs30b to meet operational cash shortfall and Shs10b in classified expenditure.
In an April 7 circular to central government accounting officers about the supplementary budget, Finance ministry Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi wrote: “… this is, therefore, to implore and remind you to ensure these are prioritised and included in your warrant submissions for the [2021/2022 Financial Year] fourth quarter [release].”
Kasaija’s defence
Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, on Tuesday, defended the supplementary expenditure, which he said Parliament approved.
Whereas the Budget Committee chairperson, Mr Patrick Isiagi (Kachumbala County MP), and his Finance Committee counterpart, Dr Keefa Kiwanuka, were unavailable to comment on the matter by press time, Amolatar District Woman MP Agnes Atim Apea, who is a member of the Budget Committee, yesterday said: “Under the Public Finance Management Act, a supplementary budget is supposed to be for things that are unforeseeable and the Ministry of Finance is supposed to do the right thing. As a committee, we made recommendations to them and we are yet to get feedback from them.”
Minister Kasaija said the money may not be necessarily spent on indicated items because priorities change, but did not clarify if such alternative use would require additional endorsement by the Legislature.
“Priorities change, some may be priorities today, but not a priority tomorrow. Suppose our people in Karamoja are facing a security problem like it is the case today, do I give money to people to go to Dubai [United Arab Emirates] to visit or I send money to Karamoja to save lives of the people there? Definitely, I will have to save lives first,” he said.
However, he said it’s not a guarantee that the Ministry of Finance will release the money to the spending agency even if it is already in the budget, saying it depends on the cash flow.
“I run a budget that is cash and if I have no cash, there is nothing that I can do. That’s why we need proportionality between expenditure and revenue and if the expenditure has exceeded the revenue, then I either have to go and borrow internally or externally because I need cash in order for me to pay,” he added.
He also explained that sometimes he consults the President, especially when there are conflicting priorities with little funds.
“At the time of disbursement, there could be other priorities and like I said, I operate a cash budget and if the priorities are high and I don’t have sufficient revenue, then I will be forced to borrow,” he said.
On the source of funding for the supplementary budget, Mr Kasaija said it will depend on priorities.
“If we can manage to get money from our revenue collection, then we will be able to pay, but if the money isn’t there … I am also not keen on borrowing these days unless it is either a do or die thing…so, we may now have to push other items to the next financial year, [which starts in July], because I will have collected enough revenue by that time,” he said.
Supplementary expenditure FY2021/2022
Entity Amount (Shs)
Presidency 168b
Office of Prime Minister 4Ob
Defence 79.2b
Foreign Affairs 750m
Justice & Const. Affairs 4.7b
Finance 14.8b
Internal Affairs 2b
Agriculture 70b
Local Government 39.6b
Education & Sports 72.6b
Trade, Ind. & Coop. 109b
Works & Transport 121.6b
Gender, Labour & Social Devt. 3b
East African Affairs 2b
Busitema Universtity 2.1b
UNRA 5.4b
Uganda Cancer Institute 69b
KCCA 4b
Muni University 2.8b
Education Service Com. 3.3b
Makerere University 24.4b
MUST 737m
UPDF 40b
Public Service Com. 334m
PPDA 722m
ISO 15.5b
Lira Univ 567m
Kabale Univ 6.7b
Soroti Univ 2.7b
NCHE 2.7b
TOTAL 913b
