A section of lawmakers on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee have lashed out at the Ministry of Public Service for paying President Museveni a peanut salary of Shs3.6M, yet the Permanent Secretary is earning Shs15.4M
The concern was raised by Eddie Kwizera (Bukimbiri County) who was addressing the decision by the Ministry to discriminate salaries of teachers, arguing that the same discrimination is exhibited in the money paid to the President.
“Madam Permanent Secretary, you can’t pay the President of Uganda Shs3.6M and you pay yourself Shs15.4M. There is a book called psychology of stupidity where people think we don’t see that is very bad, we should be realistic when we are doing our things,” remarked Kwizera.
It should be recalled that in April 2020, President Museveni confirmed he received only Shs3.6M and detailed how the money is spent including donating Shs1M to NRM secretariat while the rest is handed over to his wife Janet Museveni.
In the same period, the President expressed the need to seek consent from Janet Museveni to vary her budget, so as to enable him donate part of his salary towards the fight against Covid.
Kwizera also described as a mockery the decision by Ministry of Public Service to pay science teachers a higher salary than their counterparts the arts teachers, yet these two have an impact on the grades of the students.
“Because people laugh at us when you pay a science teacher Shs4M and you pay the arts teacher Shs600,000 who is going to have an impact on the grades and you think it is normal,” he added.
The development comes at the time when recently, the Opposition in their minority report to the 2023/2024 national budget expressed concerns over the Shs417.976Bn budget allocated to State House where they queried numerous expenditures like the Shs350mallocaed for purchase of clothes and bedding, saying the President isn’t a member of Hollywood to require such an exorbitant budget for clothes annually.
Government however defended the expenditure arguing that in addition to Entebbe State House, Nakasero State Lodge and the Vice President’s residence, there are other 23 upcountry State Lodges distributed in various parts of the country, as well as the other five Administrative office blocks that support State House (Okello House, Parliament block, Lumumba, IDC Plaza and Okello annex) saying the money is used for the purchase of protective gear for support staff, beddings for State Lodges, curtains, various linens for furniture and State House functions as well as uniforms for staff as need arises.”
The Opposition also queried the Shs7.8Bn for agriculture supplies and another Shs184M for veterinary services wondering if the President turned State House into a farm without the knowledge of Ugandans and tasked Parliament to ensure that taxpayers’ money isn’t being used to manage affairs at the President’s private farm in Kisozi.
Government however denied the allegations that the money was used to run the President’s farm in Kisozi instead revealing that the funds are used by State House to support model villages under the Presidential initiative on poverty alleviation.
Government noted that there are currently 32 model villages that are supported with agricultural inputs and training and the cost drivers for this initiative include regular training of farmers, organizing exposure trips for farmers, establishing demonstrations farms, provision of improved planting materials, provision of seed capital funding for farmer producer groups and SACCOs.
The Opposition pointed out that the Shs417.976Bn budget to State House, if computed would mean that State House spends Shs1.1Bn per day, Shs47.7Bn per hour, and Shs797.236M per minute. To put it more clearly Shs1.5Bn every two minutes and they also raised a concern over the Shs1Bn utility bills for both water and electricity, wondering how State House can have higher Utility bills than Roofings Factory.
But Government fired back saying the Shs1Bn utility bills don’t only cover the Entebbe and Nakasero state houses, but other state lodges located across the country.
