How Shs900b extra budget was shared

When Parliament passed the Shs284b supplementary budget aimed at financing the government’s fight against Covid-19, there was more huge amounts of money approved to be spent elsewhere, Saturday Monitor has established.

The attention of the public has been tilted towards involving in heated debate in which many Ugandans, especially among the elite and civil society, have raised “moral questions” over the decision by Parliament to allocate itself Shs10b that has since been shared among MPs, with each receiving Shs20m.

There is currently a court order curtailing MPs who have already received the money in their accounts not to “touch it” until the main application by Ntungamo Municipality MP Gerald Karuhanga and his Erute South colleague Jonathan Odur, is heard and decided on by the Civil Division of the High Court on Wednesday next week.

The two MPs question the legality of an amendment moved by the Budget Committee chairperson, Mr Amos Lugoloobi, to include the Shs10b appropriation to the Parliamentary Commission in the final figures for approval.

Despite the court order, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who did not agree with the court order on grounds that by the time it was issued on Tuesday, money had been sent to MPs accounts five days back, on Thursday issued guidelines on how it will be spend in the fight against Covid-19.

The guidelines are that MPs would spend the money on either feeding their constituents or on medical supplies in consultations with district taskforces.

Other allocations

According to the Budget Committee report, which Saturday Monitor has seen, the total supplementary approved on April 8, amounts to Shs932.765b. Of this, Shs284b was meant for government response towards Covid-19, a global pandemic. Much as the committee report does not in any way address the Shs10b allocated to the Parliamentary Commission, it raises the supplementary on Covid-19-related funds to Shs294b.

The other Shs638.878b passed together with the Covid-19 fund had earlier on been tabled in form of two different supplementary requests. The preamble of the report indicates that Shs662.337b was tabled on March 3, but an addendum was tabled on March 19 to raise the request to Shs749.820b.

But by the time the Finance ministry made the supplementary request of the Shs749.820b, it had already spent part of it on the offset. It has been revealed that the money spent without Parliamentary approval included Shs90b to State House, Shs6.98b to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), and Shs4.07b to the Office of the President to fund the Land Inquiry Commission head by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.

Government informed Parliament that the Supplementary Budget of Shs932.765b would be financed by part of the Shs2.4 trillion (€600m) loan that was processed last year as budget support for the Financial Year 2019/2020. The reason for the loan was that government detected revenue underperformance and also due to failure to get funds expected from the World Bank.

How supplementary was shared

At the time of processing the Supplementary Budget, Parliament had already put in restrictive measures towards preventing the further spread of Covid-19 in the ever crowded building.

Most staff had been asked to work from home, whereas visitors were stopped and government Ministries, Departments and Agencies need not to physically appear before the committee but make responses to any questions, and, where need be-only four officials would be allowed in Parliament.

A total of Shs400b of the balance of Shs638.878b was balance of the Shs749.820b of the first request is for the Ministry of Defence to purchase classified military equipment.

Also, Shs30.5b, went to the Ministry of Health towards the East African Health Laboratory Networking Project, and Uganda Reproductive, Maternal Child Health Services Improvement Project.

Another Shs3.071b will be financing the Clean Energy expansion project being implemented by the Ministry of Finance. The Judiciary will also partake Shs9.886b of this supplementary.

The Shs294b (including Shs10b to MPs) has overshadowed the other huge expenditure on Security classified equipment. All in all, Security got the lion’s share of the Shs932.765b, with Shs400b for classified equipment and also part of the covid-19 funds.

The Ministry of Health, whose initial allocation was Shs62b, was given Shs104b after Parliament revised the figures upwards. Some of the top up funds was got from the huge amount of money that had been requested by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and Ministry of Information, National Guidance and ICT.

Security got Shs77.497b to finance the interagency enforcement of government’s directives, including the lockdown and closure of gatherings; KCCA got Shs2b; Ministry of ICT took Shs6b; Disaster Preparedness (to procure relief food) got Shs59.4b; and the Local Governments, including, Resident District Commissioners (RDCs and district health officers) got Shs36.199b

Minority report

Meanwhile, the budget committee report that recommended to the House Committee of Supply to approve this supplementary budget was challenged by a minority report, whose authors lost on the floor.

The minority report was signed by Mr Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala County), Mr Karuhanga, Ms Cecilia Ogwal (Woman MP, Dokolo), Ms Winfred Kiiza (Woman MP, Kasese) and Ms Joy Atim Ongom (Woman MP, Lira).

The minority report, among other points of dissent, questioned the role of the security agencies in the fight against Covid-19 that cannot be funded under their annual budget to warrant allocation of Shs77b in the Supplementary Budget.

The minority report also proposed that the entire Covid-19 budget goes to the Ministry of Health, which is already facing a shortfall of Shs359b out of the planned short term response budget request of Shs464b.

“We recommend that the entire Shs284b in the supplementary request for the Covid-19 pandemic should be allocated to the Health sector.

“This would reduce the deficit of the short term management of Covid-19 to Shs180b,” the minority report reads in part.

It was also their argument that other government sectors needed no money but to become “frugal and handle all Covid-19-related activities within their approved budget.”

Signatories

The minority report was signed by Mr Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala County), Mr Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality), Ms Cecilia Ogwal (Woman MP, Dokolo), Ms Winfred Kiiza (Woman MP, Kasese District) and Ms Joy Atim Ongom (Woman MP, Lira).