National Budget hits Shs29 trillion

Kayunga Hospital. Shs5 billion for equipping Kayunga and Yumbe hospitals will be stayed according to the corrections made on 2017/18 Budget estimates. PHOTO BY FRED MUZAALE

Kampala. The corrections submitted to Parliament have amended the 2017/18 Budget upwards.
The new Budget estimates now move from the previous Shs28.2 trillion to Shs29 trillion.
In his letter to the Clerk to Parliament communicating the corrigenda, Secretary to Treasury Keith Muhakanizi explained that “there are some errors and or omissions in the annual Budget estimates; as a result, the corrigenda [corrections] have been prepared to correct these errors and omissions.”

New vote for salaries
Key in the corrigenda is the creation of a new vote to cater for salaries, separating it from previous votes.
“To facilitate monitoring of the payment of salary arrears, a specific item 321617 has been created, the corrigenda involve shifting salary arrears under various votes to the new item for salary arrears,” read the corrigenda.
In the Office of the Prime Minister, Shs320 million has been added to the budget for purchasing of hand hoes, the resources being shed from travel in-land.
In the Office of the President, an earlier rejected request to allocate Shs1 billion for “construction of government offices” has been reinstated.
In the ministry of Public Service, Shs711 million has been transferred from a program named “Support to ministry of Public Service,” to cater for an increase in salary of Permanent Secretaries and the corresponding pension obligations.
In the Finance ministry, Shs9 billion has been moved to the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to cater for the Women Fund and the Youth Livelihood Fund, “following a meeting with the President.”
Uganda Railway Corporation’s pensioners are to have their money paid through the ministry of Works, hence the transfer from the ministry of Finance.

Budget cuts
Three projects from the ministry of Local Government are going to suffer cuts amounting to Shs700 million to finance “Urban Market designs,” a prerequisite for funding.
A total of Shs706 million has been cut from various projects to finance Ntare School; while the construction of Neonatal and Maternal Hospital amounting to Shs37.7 billion and Shs5 billion for equipping Kayunga and Yumbe hospitals will be stayed.
Budget Committee chairperson Amos Lugoloobi, in a converstion with Daily Monitor yesterday, said the new adjustments will have implications on policy statements of affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies already considered by Parliament.