PM Nabbanja tasks govt officials on effective budgeting

Government officials at all levels have been urged to ensure that the budgeted money does what it is meant for.

The call was made by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja on Tuesday while presiding over the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Budget for the Financial Year 2022/2023 at the Office of the President in Kampala.

Ms Nabbanja said the National Budget must target interventions that put money in people’s pockets, stressing that “if you want to know someone’s priorities, you simply have to look at how they have allocated their budgets.”

“Colleagues, we also need to make sure that the money allocated in the budget, actually does what it is meant to do. In short, I am addressing the issue of corruption, where public resources end up in the deep pockets of contractors, and middlemen, and never reach the intended beneficiaries,” she said.
In this regard, Ms Nabbanja said: “This cancer of corruption must be fought by all of us on this committee. We should not simply satisfy ourselves with the allocations, but also with how the money is used. This calls on us to monitor government projects on the ground and ensure that there is value for money, and that the quality of work is up to standard,” she said.

 Ms Nabbanja pointed out that emphasis must be on promoting sectors that directly touch the lives of the people such as agro-processing, industrialisation, and infrastructure development.

Ms Nabbanja said a key element in the 3rd National Development Plan as well as the NRM Manifesto is the implementation of the Parish Development Model. 

“We want to make sure that the required resources for the operationalisation of the Model are availed during this financial year and the forthcoming years, because we believe that this is going to be a game changer for our people since service delivery programmes will now be targeted at the lowest level— the parish,” she said.

Allocation
Finance minister Matia Kasaija in a presentation made by Mr Amos Lugoloobi (State, Planning) said: “Colleagues, the total government of Uganda budget excluding debt, external financing and appropriation in aid (AIA) amounts to Shs22.76 trillion. A total of Shs12.074 trillion has been released, which amounts to 53 percent of approved budget in the half year budget release for FY 2021/22.”

Mr Kasaija said Shs1.06 trillion has been released to local governments.  Of this, 66 percent is development grants, while Shs817 billion has been released to health institutions, including Shs206.36 billion supplementary budget for Covid-19, and Shs334 billion to National Medical Stores for essential medicines and drugs.  

The chairperson of the National Planning Authority, Prof Pamela K. Mbabazi, said development priorities under the National Development Programme III are increasing access to reliable, stable and affordable energy, through increased power generation, reducing transport costs through improving interconnectivity, regular maintenance of existing transport infrastructure stock and linking the country to regional and global markets.