The Ministry of Finance through the Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi (pictured) has threatened not to approve supplementary budgets of entities that failed to utilise up all their allocated budgets.
Ggoobi sounded the warning on Thursday during a Local Governments Budget Consultative Workshop held in Masaka, where he assured the Local Government leaders that although Government is still faced with challenge of COVID-19, it will continue to ensure that substantial resources are provided to Local Governments for improved service delivery over medium term.
He however decried the perennial practice of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) failing to utilise all funds allocated to them and end up returning funds to the Treasury.
“It is unfortunate that funds are returned unspent at the end of the financial year. For example, at the end of FY 2020/21,a total of Shs.589bn was returned to the consolidated fund. Going forward this cannot be tolerated anymore and I will not approve any supplementary for unspent balances without clear justification on how the funds were not absorbed,” warned Secretary to Treasury.
Ggoobi who was representing the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija also reminded Local Government leaders in Buganda region about the directive by President Museveni to the effect that starting FY 2021/22 all new construction projects under Health & Education facilities must be undertaken by Army Construction Brigade.
