Kabarole struggles to spend Shs2.9b in less than 50 days

Kabarole District leaders are struggling to utilise Shs2.9 billion as the 2022/2023 Financial Year comes to a close.

The money is part of the Shs3.128 billion, which the Kabarole District Council approved as a supplementary budget after the Ministry of Finance released the funds to the district in this month.

Part of the money has been used to construct a multi-billion seed school and to upgrade health centre IIs to IIIs. The projects had stalled since last year.

The secretary for financial planning and administration, Mr Peter Bazira, while presenting the Supplementary Budget for approval, said Shs3.128 billion remained unspent at the end of the Financial Year 2021/2022 and was returned to the Consolidated Fund.

Of Shs3.128 billion, Shs197.7 million is allocated for wages while Shs2.9 billion is meant for development grants.

“We have just passed a supplementary budget and we are supposed to absorb this money and I don’t know how we shall do so in less than 50 days. The central government keeps telling us that we fail to use the money yet they delay sending us contractors,” Mr Bazira said.

The Auditor General’s report of June 30, 2022, indicates that of the Shs3.128 billion sent back, Shs1, 226 billion was meant for the construction of Kichwamba Seed School, which did not take off while Shs1, 703 billion was meant for the upgrade of Nyabuswa and Kituuli HCIIs to the HCIIIs under UGIFT and procurement of medical equipment.

In the Financial Year 2021/2022, the construction of Kichwamba Seed School did not take off because the contract was not awarded by the Ministry of Education and Sport due to procurement discrepancies.

The same report shows that money for the upgrade of Nyabuswa and Kituuli health facilities was not utilised because in the same Financial Year 2021/22, it was released to the district account in the month of April and it could not be absorbed due to hybrid procurement processes.

The district leaders are again worried that the same monies are likely to be taken back to the Consolidated Fund account because there are a few days left until the end of the financial year.

Kabarole chairperson Richard Rwabuhinga said it is not fair for the Ministry of Finance to take away the money in June last year and bring in May when the financial year is ending.

“These monies will not be absorbed at the end of this financial year and it will be sent back, I would wish to appeal to the central government to stop failing the implementation of the NRM manifesto,” he said. He said the money that is always unspent are meant for capital projects such as Kichwamba Seed School, upgrade of Nyabuswa, Kichwamba and Kituuli health facilities which are in the NRM manifesto 2021-2026.

The district leadership said most of the unspent balance at the end of financial year are monies meant for UGFIT projects whose contractors to implement such projects are procured by the central government, not at the district level.

“The Public Finance Act of 2015 is crippling decentralisation, how do you take the money in June and return it in May and you expect us to utilise the money in less than 50 days,” Mr Rwabuhinga said.

The Monitor has learnt that since this financial year started, the contractor of Karobwa Engineering Service Ltd, who was awarded a contract to construct Kichwamba Seed School and upgrade of health centre III reportedly abandoned the sites.

On Monday when this publication visited the two sites, the contractor had only levelled the ground for the seed school while the works of Kichwamba health centre stopped at the ring beam level. Efforts to get a comment from Karobwa Engineering Service Ltd were futile by press time.

The law

The Public Finance Management Act of 2015 mandates the Ministry of Finance to take away unspent balance at the end of the financial year without consulting the district, but local leaders say such grant money should remain at the district.

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