By Yasiin Mugerwa.
Parliament. The last-minute revision of the 2016/17 Budget from Shs21.2 trillion to now Shs26.3 trillion has muddled the Budget process in Parliament and infuriated legislators who had just presented their reports to Parliament.
Ministry of Finance officials led State minister David Bahati yesterday presented the changes within the resource envelope to the House Budget Committee as contained in the Budget Corrigenda, highlighting what the minister called “the corrections and adjustments” in the budget.
Mr Bahati, however, explained: “We are running an incremental budget system and it is a cash budget. We have allocated Shs200b to Naads to boost production, Shs445b is going to infrastructure projects such as roads, compensation to the people in northern Uganda (Shs20b) and Luweero (Shs10b), the women and youth funds and other critical areas.”
However, the MPs on the Budget Committee questioned the last-minute revision of the Budget and wondered how the various sectoral committees of Parliament intend to examine the details when they had already finalised and presented their reports to Parliament. The lawmakers also demanded to know the source and purpose of the additional funding amounting to more than Shs5trillion.
Mr Eddie Kwizera Wagahungu (NRM, Bufumbira East), who chairs the Energy Committee, stunned members when he revealed that his committee found that Shs10 billion, which is part of the corrigenda, had been allocated to ministry of energy yet the ministry officials did not know what to do with the money.
The Budget committee chairperson, Mr Amos Lugoloobi (Ntenjeru North), also noted that additional Shs54 billion allocated to water sector lacks details.
Other legislators raised concerns that the additional funds were going to prop up operational expenses, especially in the local government yet development financing had stagnated at only 14 per cent of the total budget in the face of unfunded priorities across sectors.
“You may expand your budget but not to the detriment of the critical areas where we had allocated funds,” Mr Lugoloobi warned. “We have seen a number of new items that are not explained. For instance, the huge figures under Treasury services amounting to Shs4.7 trillion. How does such arise so abruptly?,” he asked.
The director Budget, Mr Kenneth Mugambe explained that Shs4.7trillion had been included in the Budget because Treasury had no completed reconciliation yet the money was needed to finance treasury redemption, an annual activity. “He said an additional Shs82b in the corrigenda was for external financing. This is money needed to finance key projects.
The Budget Committee is scrutinising the corrigenda and is expected to present its report to Parliament today. The 2016/17 budget is expected to be read in June.
In May last year, the government presented a Shs24.1 trillion Budget for the 2015/16 Financial Year, up from this year’s Shs15 trillion.
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