The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MoLHUD) has failed to absorb funds provided to it in the 2016/17 National budget.
According to the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee Report on Physical Infrastructures on Ministerial Budget Policy Statements and Proposed Budget Estimates for FY 2017/18 obtained by Business Focus, MoLHUD’s absorption of Shs131.14bn provided in 2016/17 Financial Year was just at 55.6%.
The report reveals that by end of December 2016, a total of Shs73.3bn had been released, representing 55.9% release performance.
It adds that the Ministry registered a low release performance of 19% of the Domestic Development Budget by the half of the FY, while 68% of the Donor Development Funds had been released.
“…there was poor absorption of funds especially meant for development, as GoU (Government of Uganda) development funds were absorbed at 22.8% while Donor Development Funds were absorbed at 29.6%,” the report reveals.
It adds: “Ultimately, only 55.6% of the total budget (Shs131.14bn) was released and only 38.8% was absorbed by the Ministry.”
The total budget under MoLHUD is projected to reduce to Shs124.38bn in 2017/18, down from Shs131.14bn in 2016/17. This is a 5% drop equivalent to Shs6.768bn. Betty Amongi has been the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development since June, 2016, having replaced Daudi Migereko.
