UNAA convention affected as Covid-19 affects government expenditure
The 2020 edition of the annual Uganda North American Association (UNAA) convention in the US has been affected after the Ugandan government freezed all foreign travel for its officials due to the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19 has imposed budgetary adjustments on governments and businesses around the world, and Uganda is no exception.
A recent statement by the head of treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, government has proposed to slash foreign travels by 100 per cent only leaving a window for emergency travels.
According to Mr Muhakanizi, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided revelation that specific assignments can be handled without necessarily having officials travel abroad.
The development is a huge blow to the UNAA convention and other Diaspora conventions that have a heavy reliance on government participation.
UNAA has been attracting a litany of government officials, politicians and members of Parliament who are facilitated by the government to travel to US.
Parliament is a major player in the convention.
The three-day convention costs the country between Shs380 million and Shs570 million in direct grants and to cater for allowances for government officials, politicians and MPs.
According to a 2017 report by the Internal Security Organisation, Parliament was one of the big spenders on travel abroad.
Parliament in 2016/17 fiscal year spent over Shs21billion on foreign travels, a part of the chunk spent on sponsoring 78 Members of parliament who attended the UNAA convention in Boston.
UNAA, in a statement issued through President Henrietta Wamala on April 15, 2020 indicated that the $100,000 which is an annual gift from President Museveni to organise the convention be used to support Ugandan communities in need during the pandemic.
The money was reportedly disbursed to UNAA in April, however, to-date there is no evidence UNAA has used the funds towards pandemic purposes.
The Speaker of UNAA Council Ms Maureen Asiimwe Kalemba declined to comment on the money and referred us to the UNAA President, Ms Henrieta Senabulya Wamala for clarification.
The members, Ms Wamala said, were supposed to apply and access the financial assistance through the Ugandan Embassy after a formal communication.
This is under the $50,000 which is allocated to to the Community Development Fund.
The 2020 UNAA Convention was scheduled to take place in in San Francisco, California on the Labour Day weekend.
