MPs on the Parliament’s Budget Committee have recommended to Parliament to approve a supplementary request of Shs33.332bn of which Shs9.172Bn is for recurrent expenditure and Shs24.159Bn for development expenditure.
This comes hardly four weeks to the end of the 2019/2020 Financial Year,
It should be recalled that Government presented to the nation the 2019/20 Budget totaling to Shs40.487bn and the move by the Ministry of Finance to present supplementary expenditures caused outrage, with MPs on the Budget Committee expressing concern about the growing number and frequency of supplementary requests.
Among the entities to benefit from the supplementary budget include Ministry of Finance that is seeking for Shs.3.9bn, Kampala Capital City Authority Shs10bn, Uganda Industrial Research Institute Shs10bn, Local Governments Shs9.062bn and Ministry of Gender Shs2.408bn to relocate street Children off the streets in Kampala.
Parliament in FY 2018/19 authorized the Ministry of Gender to spend Shs3.4bn.
However, of this amount, only Shs1bn was released and Cabinet directed the Ministry of Finance to release the balance of Shs2.4bn in FY 2019/2020 for implementation of the remaining street children activities.
Officials from the Ministry of Gender told Parliament that the funds are expected to finance priority interventions targeting 1,500 street children.
In approving the Supplementary budget, the Budget Committee noted, “The Committee has considered the plight of street kids picked recently by the Ministry and now housed at different permanent and temporary centres and the challenges associated with rehabilitating, feeding and resettling them as well as ensuring surveillance to limit new ones from getting into cities and other urban areas. The Committee therefore recommends that Shs2, 402,960,000 be provided as requested to ameliorate the problem of street kids.”
The Committee however warns of the increasing supplementary budgets.
“This worsening trend undermines the credibility of annual planning and budgeting as entities appear to be avoiding detailed scrutiny during the normal budget process in favor of supplementary budgeting whose expenditure can be allowed to take effect prior to the approval of parliament,” the Committee report reads in part.
The MPs added: “It is a known fact that through supplementary spending, government has suppressed the approved annual budget in favor of funding supplementary expenditure.
This practice needs to be discouraged by providing written guidelines to the government. These guidelines are being developed by the committee for presentation to the house for approval.”
