Teachers’ strike: Is it a case of govt lacking money or misplaced priorities?

The teachers’ strike has paralysed studies in government schools across the country. The teachers are demanding fulfillment of the 20 per cent salary increase which the government promised two years ago. The teachers under their association, Uganda National Teachers Association (Unatu) have insisted they will not return to class until government gives them the salary increment. But the government has firmly told them there is no money for them in the Budget this financial year and they have to wait a little longer to have their demand fulfilled.

President Museveni has publicly told the striking teachers to wait because the country has more pressing issues like social infrastructure which the government is focusing on before it attends to the teachers’ salaries.
On Monday, the Executive Director of the Media Centre and government spokesman, Mr Ofwono Opondo, reiterated the President’s position, saying the State is preoccupied with funding priority sectors; roads, energy, ICT and water and cannot find money to increase teachers’ salaries.

On July 30, the Minister of Finance, Ms Maria Kiwanuka, said the Treasury cannot afford to pay any more money to teachers than it has currently budgeted for. The Unatu chairman, Mr James Tweheyo, says they have identified non-core areas such as seminars and workshops, and foreign travels for ministers and other government officials where extra funds can be recovered to increase teachers’ salaries. But the government insisted there is no area in the Budget where such money can be raised.

The Parliament Budget Committee, which had been instructed to find new sources in the Budget where the money could be raised, reported to the House on Wednesday that they had failed to identify any area to raise the money from. This would ordinarily imply that the government cannot provide money for expenditure which is not provided for in the Budget. However, perusal of the annual budget performance reports in the Ministry of Finance over the last 10 years reveals a different scenario.

Every financial year, State House, the President’s residence, has been receiving additional money two times more than its budget for more than 10 years. The government has never failed to get additional money for the President’s residence. Not even the sectors such as energy/electricity, roads, ICT and water listed by the government and the President as top priorities, have received such funding as State House.

In the annual budget performance report for 2011/12, the approved budget for the Ministry of Water and Environment, was Shs199.8 billion but it received Shs112 billion (56 per cent) by end of financial year in June 2012.

In the same year, the approved State House budget was Shs66.6 billion, but it received Shs159.9 billion (240 per cent of its original budget). The President’s Office was allocated Shs45.3 billion in the Budget but it received Shs49.9 billion (110 per cent), meaning the government released supplementary funding that was not in the initial budget. The trend is generally the same throughout the financial years as the illustrations of the Budget report shows (see tables).
From the Budget reports, it is clear that none of the sectors the President named as top priority has received all its approved funding in the Budget.

Surprisingly, State House which government does not consider a priority, is the only institution of government that has received all its budget funds. It is also the only government institution that has received additional funding that is more than twice the original amount proposed during the reading of the national Budget at end of every financial year.

This gives rise to questions; where does the government get this extra money for State House, which it cannot raise for teachers who provide education for the whole country? This tends to give credence to Unatu’s claim that the government has several sources in the Budget to raise money for their salary rise but it has refused because it does not regard teachers as a priority.

No money
On Wednesday, members of the ruling NRM in Parliament agreed with the Budget Committee’s majority decision that the government has nowhere in the Budget to get the Shs136 billion for the teachers’ salary enhancement.
The four opposition MPs on the Budget Committee: Geoffrey Ekanya, Jack Sabiiti, Judith Franca Akello and Odo Tayebwa in their minority report, identified areas in the budget where government could raise the money for teachers’ pay raise.
The opposition MPs had identified discretionary expenditures on items like advertising, workshops and seminars, staff training, hire of venues, books, periodicals and newspapers, welfare and entertainment, travel and fuel, among others, as ripe areas for resource mobilisation for teachers’ wages.

They also suggested that the government can recover Shs34 billion from the State House donations vote of Shs80 billion, remove Shs26 billion from Shs295 billion for classified expenditure under Ministry of Defence and Shs4 billion from Shs18 billion budget for another classified expenditure.

They further argued that the proposed purchase of land for office space by the Prime Minister’s office at Shs8 billion be postponed and take out Shs4 billion to go towards the teachers’ salaries since the Prime Minister’s office staff have already acquired new offices. Deductions from these sources would raise the Shs136 billion the teachers are seeking for their salary increase.

This proposal was resoundingly and promptly rejected by the majority NRM legislators in the House, insisting the government had nowhere to get the extra money. However, given the pattern of additional funding to State House in the last 10 years as illustrated in the Budget reports, the same Parliament will, most likely, find new sources within the Budget to get additional money for the President’s residence before the end of this financial year.

In the last three financial years, the government has found from “new sources” an additional Shs264 billion for State House. This amount is enough to meet the teachers’ salary increment for two years. So the question arises; is government failing to get additional funding for teachers’ salary increment because the money is not provided for in the Budget or is it because it does not consider teachers as a priority?