Finance plots takeover of collecting tourism revenue

A rift has erupted between the Ministry of Finance and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) over the collection of revenue from national parks and related services, Sunday Monitor can reveal.

The Ministry of Finance has demanded that the revenues be remitted to the Consolidated Fund, a proposal UWA is opposed to. The Consolidated Fund is the general collection account for all money for the government. UWA, a self-accounting body created by an Act of Parliament, collects its own revenue, as do other self-accounting agencies.

Sources say in September last year, Finance ministry officials, through a budget call circular, informed UWA and a number of other self-accounting bodies that they would be required to remit the money they collected to the Consolidate Fund. The Finance ministry, in demanding for the remittances to the Consolidated Fund, sources say, cited a Cabinet directive details of which we were unable to ascertain.

Our sources say UWA responded to the demands from the Finance ministry, explaining why it was important that they kept collecting the money under the current arrangement. UWA officials, sources say, argued that Article 153 (2) a) of the Constitution excludes revenues collected by agencies created by an Act of Parliament from being paid into the Consolidated Fund.

“This does not only end with the Constitution but also with the Public Finance Management Act 2015. This is the law that must be followed until there are amendments to these provisions,” a source said.

UWA further argued that the creation of the institution has led to a marked improvement in the way national parks are managed, protecting wildlife and markedly reducing poaching and other illegal activities in parks. They argued that the autonomy to spend the money at their disposal ensures flexibility in the way they do their work.

A source in UWA who asked not to be named, for example, said whenever there are clashes between wildlife and people, UWA swiftly moves to calm the situation by compensating the affected communities. If the money was to be kept in the Consolidated Fund, the source said, the flexibility would be taken away because of the bureaucratic processes of accessing money from that fund.

The UWA officials further told the Finance ministry officials that once the money meant to do UWA work is transferred to the Consolidated Fund, chances of it being reallocated to other uses are many, which could paralyse UWA activities and lead to a relapse in the management of national parks. After those arguments were made to the officials of the Ministry of Finance late last year, we have learnt, the Finance officials promised to return to UWA with a response.

UWA RESPONSIBILITY

UWA is responsible for the management of 10 national parks and 12 wildlife reserves, five community wildlife management areas, and 13 wildlife sanctuaries. It is one of the institutions that President Museveni has lauded recently, and in the face of rampant cutting down of forests, the President threatened to transfer the management of forests from National Forestry Authority to UWA.
Plans to ensure that revenues from such institutions are remitted to the Consolidated Fund have been afoot, and announcement was made recently that Uganda Revenue Authority will take over the collection of fees in all public universities, which move will necessitate the closing of the respective universities’ bank accounts as the money will then be remitted to the Consolidated Fund.
But there have been some challenges with this approach. While preparing the 2019/20 budget, Parliament had to intervene in row between the Finance and the Uganda Road Fund (URF) after the former cut district roads budget by Shs542.5b from Shs579.1b in the financial year ending June 30. Only Shs36.6b had been allocated to the Road Fund, something that angered MPs on the Physical Infrastructure Committee after Eng Michael Odongo, the URF boss, raised the red flag.

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