The finance ministry last week presented a budget estimate of sh14 trillion to Parliament, pushing the national budget expenditure for the financial year 2024/25 from sh58.3 trillion to sh72.13 trillion.
The revised budgetary allocations that were approved by Parliament left several accounting officers of ministries, departments and agencies in tears, while others laughed all the way to the bank. Details of the additional allocations tabled before Parliament’s budget committee by finance state minister Henry Musasizi last Thursday showed that whereas several votes had their budgets increased, many suffered cuts.
He informed the committee, chaired by Kacumbala MP Patrick Isiagi, that the budget increase was a result of the additional budget approved by President Yoweri Museveni and Cabinet.
Musasizi said there were some issues that had not been fully and appropriately captured at the time of finalising the draft estimates tabled on March 28.
He also tabled a corrigendum that showed errors and omissions by accounting officers, which were corrected and presented in the final budget.
Budget chronology This is the fourth time and, so far, the highest addition to the main budget estimates presented to Parliament by the finance ministry for approval.
According to the Budget Framework Paper that Musasizi tabled in Parliament in December last year, he presented a sh52.7 trillion budget for the FY 2024/25.
The figure later rose to sh53.3 trillion in February after the ministry issued a second budget call circular. On March 28, Musasizi again tabled an Appropriation Bill with a total budget of sh58.3 trillion.
Shortly after, the minister submitted a budget draft of sh6o trillion. On the morning of May 16 when Parliament was preparing to debate and approve the main budget, Musasizi brought a corrigendum and an additional budget of sh13.7 trillion and laid it on the floor of the House.
This revised the budget further to sh72.13 trillion.
Musasizi said the corrections made by the accounting officers on the budget estimates were accepted to ensure that the proposed changes do not result in supplementary requests or arrears on the items where adjustments have been made.
Sources revealed that additional funding was included on the recommendation of Parliament to pay a number of critical activities that were not funded in the budget.
“Some of these activities included capitalisation of Vision Group, salaries for soldiers, cattle payment for people in Teso and so on,” a source said.
According to documents, additional funds of sh7.7 trillion will go towards clearing a Bank of Uganda debt; shi.5 trillion to pay interest rate; sh334b to finance government projects, sh132.6b to pay for equity acquisition in the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Sh110b for Parliament, sh415b for the Electoral Commission to implement the 2026 election roadmap and sh25b for capitalisation of Vision Group.
During the presentation of the corrigenda in the Committee, John Muheirwoha, the Commissioner of the Budget Policy and Evaluation Department, told the budget committee that the sh132.6b is required as balance to pay for government’s proposed equity acquisition in EACOP. The money will be channelled through the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).
According Muheirwoha, the sh132.6b was already provided for under the supplementary budget schedule III of the financial year 2023/24, which was approved as part of the rest of the items. According to Musasizi, the budgets of some institutions were slashed to fit within the available resource envelope. After tabling the additional budget last Thursday, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among immediately sent the corrigendum and addendum to the budget committee for scrutiny.
The committee instead presented its report to Parliament at 6:00pm on the same day, pushing the debate and budget approval up to 9:00pm.
OPPOSITION MPS RESPOND
However, in a minority report that was presented by shadow finance minister Ibrahim Semujju Nganda (Kira Municipality) and signed by Lulume Bayiga (Buikwe South) and Karim Masaba (Mbale Municipality), the opposition legislators expressed dismay at the hasty revision of the national budget by sh13.78trillion.
Ssemujju amused MPs when he described the processing of the 2024/25 budget as the most chaotic in history, saying Government presented different and contradictory figures at each stage.
He said the modifications prevented ministries, departments and agencies from submitting detailed work plans and procurement plans, which in turn obstructed the budget committee’s capacity to make well-informed financial decisions contrary to Section 13 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) of 2015.
On March 28, in compliance with the PFMA, Musasizi presented a statement to Parliament affirming the reliability and completeness of the budget estimates for the fiscal year 2024/2025.
“Immediately after attesting to completeness and reliability of the budget estimates, he promised to bring another corrigendum at the conclusion of the budgetary process,”Ssemujju said.
He added: “This recurring practice of last-minute amendments not only contradicts the statutory requirement for the minister to provide accurate and comprehensive budgetary information, but also undermines the integrity of the budgeting process itself.”
During the debate, Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo and a number of opposition legislators led by Ssemujju protested Government’s move to increase the budget to sh72.13 trillion without close scrutiny.
They argued that whereas Article 155 of the Constitution and Section 13(4) of the PFMA allows the finance minister to lay before Parliament the proposed annual budget estimates and work plans for the financial year 2024/25 and a corrigendum to the annual estimates, the committees did not have enough time to analyse the figures in the corrigendum.
Ssekikubo accused the finance ministry of ‘ambushing parliament to approve figures hastily without close scrutiny’.
“This is an honourable Parliament that transacts matters on behalf of Ugandans. How do we proceed and approve a budget that has just been ballooned to sh72 trillion without being scrutinised by the sectoral committees?
A total of Shs4 trillion is a huge and substantial amount to be just brought in the House early this morning and then pass it without scrutiny,”he said.
However, Speaker Among wondered whether the sector budget committee chairpersons that scrutinise sector budgets attended the budget committee and participated in the processing of the corrigendum.
However, Geoffrey Ekanya (Tororo), a member of the budget committee, said the corrigendum was as a result of Parliament’s recommendations to finance a number of what was considered to be priorities that had not been provided for in the budget.
This prompted Among to immediately close the debate and call for another item on the order paper.
