Reflections on the 2019/20 Budget

On June 13, Finance minister Matia Kasaija will read Uganda’s Budget for Financial Year (FY) 2019/20 which will for the first time in Uganda’s history hit a whopping Shs40.5 trillion. The theme of the Budget is: “Industrialisation for job creation and shared prosperity.”
Uganda’s budgetary process has sadly been so skewed that the legitimate and key role of Parliament has effectively been usurped by the Executive, especially by the current resident of State House. The sector-by-sector allocation of resources in the new Budget does not, once again, reflect the correct national priorities of Uganda, as clearly spelt out by wananchi during campaigns for the 2011 and 2016 elections, namely, education, health and agriculture.

Proposed allocation of resources
According to a story published by Daily Monitor on May 24 titled, “Works, security take lion’s share of Budget,” the hyena’s share of the Budget goes to works and transport followed by security whose Budget has been increased significantly as if Uganda is preparing for war.
The works and transport sector will get Shs6.4 trillion which represents 16.2 per cent while security gets Shs3.61 trillion representing 9.1 per cent. Out of the security budget, which is double what was allocated last year, about Shs600 billion is “classified expenditure” which means taxpayers and MPs will not know how our money is spent by a chosen few.
Many MPs fear the so-called classified expenditure will be spent on the sole candidate’s campaign for the 2021 elections which has unofficially started.

Other sectors in the big league include education which has been allocated Shs3.28 trillion; energy and mineral development, Shs2.95 trillion; health, one of the key sectors gets, only Shs2.5 trillion and agriculture which politicians routinely tell wananchi is the backbone of the economy gets a paltry Shs1.4 trillion, far less than the 10 per cent African Union member states committed themselves to at Maputo, Mozambique. It’s needless to mention that most Ugandans earn their living from agriculture which employs almost 70 per cent of Uganda’s working population.

Wrong priorities again!
Building of infrastructure, especially roads and railways, which Sabalwanyi talks about endlessly is, in my opinion, the wrong priority for our country. Uganda’s primary resource is her people, our population. Hence, the best investment government can make which will translate into rapid economic development and wealth creation is in human resources. The sectors which are critical in this regard are education, health and agriculture.

During the two Uganda Peoples Congress-led governments of the 1960s and 1980s, the priority sectors were education, health and agriculture. These three sectors consumed about 40 per cent of the Budget. In the NRM regime, the three sectors get less than 20 per cent. I wonder how Uganda can achieve middle-income status in 2020 without investing heavily in human resource development. It’s a fallacy and wishful thinking or could it be a deliberate ploy to hoodwink a naïve and gullible population into believing that Uganda is growing and making steady progress?

Fiscal indiscipline is one of the major weaknesses of the NRM regime and this was illustrated when government submitted, barely one month to the end of the current FY, a request for Supplementary Budget of Shs33.2 billion for the resident of State House out of which Shs17 billion is allegedly for facilitating Sabalwanyi’s ongoing tours to educate peasants on wealth creation and Shs15 billion for “classified expenditure”.

It’s an insult, outrageous and unacceptable, to put it mildly. I am glad MPs Cecilia Ogwal and Muwanga Kivumbi objected strongly in Parliament to this outrage and misuse of public resources. As they correctly argued, State House must operate within its huge approved budget which exceeds that of many line ministries.
The National Budget is an important instrument for the development of Uganda. Parliament must, therefore, not abdicate its primary role in the budgetary process to any other branch of government or person.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat.
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