Mercenaries have hijacked budgeting process - Speaker

Parliament yesterday failed to approve the Financial Year 2023/2024 Budget after several glitches in the presentation of the final draft budget report, which had twice been rescheduled by House Speaker Anita Among.
Ms Among informed lawmakers yesterday that part of the problem was because of mercenaries that had severally attempted to influence the tweaking of budgetary allocations for government ministries, departments, and agencies.

She, however, did not name persons involved in the alleged influence peddling. 
Speaker Among made the remark after the Budget Committee Chairperson, Mr Patrick Isiagi Opolot (Kachumbala County), said the committee had faced challenges during the processing of the draft budget.
“There are mercenaries [in the Budget Committee] advocating for particular entities. They are the people disorganising the Committee,”Ms Among said before asking Mr Isiagi to outline the impeding factors obstructing the speedy deliberations on the matter. 
Mr Opolot said since they run a democratic system, the committee is open to every legislator.

“As the Chair [chairperson of the Budget Committee], he may be fearing to say the challenges there but…I will say it. I am coming to monitor the process myself [and] adjourning this House to 8am, tomorrow [today],” Speaker Among said.
Mr Opolot  blamed the government for making last minute changes. 
“Government has continued to submit addendum and corrigenda to the estimates and you are aware even this morning [yesterday], two hours ago, the addendum to the corrigenda was laid on this Floor and referred to this committee,” he said.
Adding: “It will be magical science for the [Budget] committee to meet the directive of preparing and consolidating a report today (Wednesday), so we request the House to allow us to have the whole of today [to] interrogate and do the right casting and report [back] tomorrow (today) to the House.”
The committee was thereafter accorded time to complete its report and process a second corrigenda [item to corrected] from the State Minister for Finance (General Duties) Mr Henry Musasizi who at the last minute tabled a reconsideration of the budget from possibly Shs51 trillion to Shs 52 trillion.

Genesis
Initially, Ms Among had emphasised that the House would yesterday handle the draft budget report without fail.
“If I don’t get a report by 2.30pm, I will name and shame the members who are disorganising the committee and we shall disband the committee because we are not going to continue working like this,” Ms Among said, adding, “I am told that some ministers have also gone to the committee [Budget] to sit, lobby as Members of Parliament. I am going to go to that committee myself.”
The Kira Municipality MP,  Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, asked Ms Among to mention names.
“You have said you don’t want members to mobilise. I am shocked. I don’t know which members want to misbehave over what. Can we be told which members want to misbehave, what is the matter,”  Mr Ssemujju inquired.

The Speaker, however, did not cite any names.
In his address to journalists, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mr Mathias Mpuuga, said his team would be investigating the issue of mercenaries.
“The Chairperson [of Budget Committee] must hedge the country against those small non-core interests and make sure that the broader agenda national interests are not circumvented,”  Mr Mpuuga said.
He added: “I am interested and I have already sounded out my teams and my team leader [Shadow Minister Finance, Mr Muwanga Kivumbi] in the committee and we are now following how these events are evolving.”

Mr Jonathan Odur (Erute South County) fears that the situation could get worse if the House leadership does not reign in to remedy the situation. 
“By the time ministers leave the floor of Parliament to go and start questioning where my thing in this budget is, then we have sunk really low,” Mr Odur said.
He added: “The Rt Hon Speaker has gone to intervene and I hope that her intervention can save the situation because tomorrow (today) we intend to question the mercenaries listed and those who are in the budget committee must be announced to the country.”
Like Speaker Among, Mr Odur wants colleagues in the House to place focus on addressing the critical concerns plaguing the country as they appropriate and make passing the final 2023/2024 budget today in a session that is slated to commence at 8am.
“We cannot accept a report coming from a mercenary committee to be presented to Parliament. I propose that Parliament now constitutes itself into a committee of the Whole House and takes decisions,” Mr Odur said.

Govt’s last minute changes
Up to yesterday mid-morning, overseers of the national treasury had not resolved on the final 2023/2024 draft budget details, after the State Minister of Finance in charge of General Duties, Mr Henry Musasizi, tabled a second corrigenda to the draft budget.
A corrigendum highlights errors and omissions or revised figures for the initial budget draft. The Finance Ministry presented the first budget draft to Parliament over a month ago.
None of the copies of the second corrigenda was shared. The budget committee final deliberations were also held in-camera. 
The initial budget tabled in March this year was Shs50.915 t  rillion but this was last week revised after Minister Musasizi tabled the first corrigenda to the same mid-last week.
As he reported the changes in the budget last Friday, Mr Musasizi revealed that “the effects of the corrigenda to the draft estimates for FY 2023/24 is Shs1 trillion which will increase the budget from Shs50.9 trillion to Shs51.9 trillion.

He had also stated that the upward revisions in the budget had been informed by the “additional Government of Uganda resource amounting to Shs254 billion to cater for treasury operations towards reducing government’s liability with the central bank,” and an “increase in external financing of Shs716.671 billion and increase in the Non-Tax Revenue for next Financial year to Shs33.311 billion.”
By the close of last Friday, the corrigenda draft budget had translated into a total increase of Shs4 Trillion from the current Financial Year,  which ends next month.