The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa has deferred a vote on the Supplementary Budget Schedule No.1 for the financial Year 2021/2022, following an impasse from across the political divide.
During the Thursday afternoon plenary debate, the Opposition vehemently rejected the 2.59 trillion Shillings supplementary expenditure, and the Shadow Minister of Finance Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi termed it an attempt by the Ministry of Finance to arrogate itself powers to appropriate.
“Suppression of the Budget is undermining the power of Parliament to appropriate; the full effect is to fund dubious things that we shall speak to; I want the Minister of Finance to tell me under what law does he do budget suppression,” he said.
Kivumbi opposed the allocation of 86.4 billion Shillings to Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, which Parliament’s Budget Committee had Okayed in readiness for the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement conference to be hosted in January 2024.
Kivumbi also challenged other payments that have already been made describing the items as nugatory expenditure. Some of these are 10.3 billion for Ministry of Finance land purchase for a one Stop Centre Parking space, 57.6 billion for Ministry of Energy’s out of court settlement and 45.7 billion for Buyout of the ESKOM concession at Kira /Nalubaale Power Station and others.
The others are 274 billion for Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) purchase of government shares in Atiak sugar factory, 26.1 billion UDC purchase of shares in Abubaker Technical Services and General Supplies Ltd, 11 billion for Kiira Motors, 38.5 billion for acquisition of CCTV equipment, 26 billion for CCTV equipment maintenance, 3.5 billion for judges’ security vehicles and others.
This money has already been spent under the 3 percent legal limit supplementary spending provided for under Section 25 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
The law provides that the total supplementary that requires additional resources over and above what is approved by parliament shall not exceed 3 percent of the total approved budget for that financial year without approval of parliament.
However, Kivumbi says that the Ministry of Finance has over time abused the 3 percent spending, citing that items highlighted in the supplementary schedule No.1 are not priority needs for the country but rather a waste of tax payer’s money and abuse the 3 percent on the supplementary spending legal limit.
On the other hand, the Budget Committee, Deputy Chairperson, Ignatius Mudimi asked Parliament to reject a proposed 20 billion allocation to Kiira Motors Corporation, saying the same was already appropriated for the entity.
But Bugabula South MP, Henry Kibalya opposed the allocations, saying the important issues to look at are the state of health services, criticizing the proposed allocations for ignoring what he said were matters critical to the well-being of the poor.
“There is no water in Mulago Hospital, the lifts are down; instead of looking at areas that cater for the life and welfare of Ugandans, we are here allocating money to Kiira Motors,” he said.
Deputy Speaker Tayebwa suspended the House for 20 minutes to allow the two sides reconcile their positions on the budget, but on resumption, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja appealed for more time and requested that the debate on the general supplementary request resumes on Tuesday next week.
“What we are handling needs some more time. This country is for all of us and we request that you give us time. Tuesday next week we will have harmonized,” she reported.
The Deputy Speaker agreed to the request, noting that the debate will only resume when the two sides are ready to proceed.
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