Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija
MPs on Parliament’s Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) have raised concern over delayed release of funds to Universities, saying this is a recipe for strikes among public universities on grounds that students pay for certain services, but aren’t able to access the services in time.
This followed a concern raised by Nathan Itungo (Kashari South) who wondered why the Ministry of Finance should hold on petty cash like that meant for University identity cards.
“We have had cases where you release 100% to a certain University and in another University, you release 60%. There is the issue of selective release, if you are releasing, either release 70% to all. But this business of giving for example Makerere University 70% then Kabale University 50% is not fair. We had a case in Mbarara University where students were about to strike because of their Identity Card money which was collected and the University couldn’t access that money. Why do you hold money for these entities just on these petty things?” Itungo asked.
Medard Sseggona (Busiro East) wondered why the Ministry of Finance has turned Bank of Uganda into collector of petty cash like money meant for University Identity cards, yet attempts to recover these funds is riddled in bureaucracy.
“Even those petty things, do you need the money for identity cards to be sent to URA? Do you want the national coffer to be a petty collector? And you know, those children can burn down that institution. I witnessed some time, workers at Kinyara Sugar burnt down the sugar cane over graduated tax. Just one of their own was arrested on the road block for defaulting on graduated tax, when the company had withheld his tax, the company had remitted to the local government, and the local government had delayed in issuing the ticket and the man gets arrested. At that time, it was around 2004, they lost cane worth Shs450M,” said Sseggona.
During the meeting, Timothy Batuwa (Jinaj South) asked Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija to address delays in sending money to National Medical Stores (NMS), saying the current practice has caused delays and hampered operation of NMS, which has thus caused constant drug stock outs in health facilities across the country.
He explained, “National Medical Stores needs to know whether you can go by the policy of front loading money for their operations because it is only 7% of the budget, it isn’t a lot of money according to what you handle, it is small money so that you stop hearing absence of drugs and medicines in hospitals. And the deaths of malaria, we lose 30 Ugandans every day, this is data from World Health Organisation (WHO) so that you wash the blood off your hands, apparently, we think you are responsible. When there is coartem in the shelves of National Medical Stores, you hear that a child under 5years has died of malaria because in that particular facility, there is no coartem but it is in Entebbe.”
