State House Entebbe
The Office of President has requested Parliament to approve its total budget for the purchase of presidential medals, warning that the failure to approve the funds would embarrass President Museveni globally.
The call was made by Sadat Kisuyi Principal Economist Office of the President who informed Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee that the Presidential awards committee wants Shs5.869Bn for the purchase of 696 medals, but only Shs4.230Bn was approved, leaving a shortage of Shs1.639Bn.
He made the remarks during a meeting held between the Presidential Affairs Committee and Office of the President where the latter had appeared to defend the 2022/2023 ministerial policy statement.
Kisuyi warned that the failure by Parliament to approve this money would leave President Museveni embarrassed in case any heads of state visit Uganda and there is no medal gifted to him.
“Some of these medals have run down like the ‘Most Excellent Order of the Pearl of Africa’ we plan to buy a few this year, but they aren’t sufficient in that particular regard. And in case an excellence comes and we need to give him a befitting medal, and it doesn’t happen it will put the President in untold embarrassment. There is need to source some of these resources to ensure that the medals are procured,“ said Kisuyi.
Abubaker Kawalya (Rubaga North) tasked the Office of President to explain the kind of medals that are going to be purchased remarking, “When you look at the Shs4.2Bn visa-vie the number of medals they plan to procure, and each medal is going to cost over Shs8M. So we need to find out which kind of medals are being awarded to the officers even if it is gold.”
The Office of the President also plans to rehabilitate the National Leadership Institute at a cost of Shs7.5Bn but only Shs2.5Bn has been availed leaving a deficit of Shs5Bn.
Additionally, the Office of the President also plans to spend Shs7.060Bn on promotion of patriotism and this will involve the promotion and coordination of the values and norms of patriotism among students in post primary institutions.
This will see 50,000 citizens, students, teachers trained in patriotism and mindset change, although only Shs1Bn has been approved leaving a deficit of Shs6.060Bn.
In a related development, Kisuyi said they want to construct offices for RDCs, noting that the Office of the President has deployed 146 RDCs but 107 are renting, while 15 houses are undergoing construction. He said the plan is to construct 10 offices for RDCs annually that would require about Shs7Bn (Shs700m for each office).
In the 2022/2023 national budget, Office of President has been allocated Shs158.318Bn of which Shs25.588Bn will be spent on wages, while Shs123.433Bn will go towards non wage expenditure and Shs9.298Bn for development.
