Last week, State Minister for General Duties in the Ministry of Finance Henry Musasizi and others presented and defended a supplementary budget of 3.5 trillion shillings for Parliamentary approval just five months into the financial year 2023/2024.
Opposition legislators and economists are opposed to the budget citing that the country’s debt burden is widening at 86.8trillion shillings both external and internal. Worse still, State House allocated 485billion shillings constituting a significant portion of the proposed budget without clear breakdown of expenditures.
Despite the recent queries, Lubowa specialised hospital resurfaced requesting allocation of 2.7billion shillings which is to be spent on supervising construction works specifically facilitation of field supervisors and engineers, something raising concerns over financial management.
Also, the budget includes government request of 300 billion for National Identity Card renewal, where 138billion of the total allocated to National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) for identity cards and procurement of security system to facilitate data collection process.
Quite unexpected, despite the controversies concerning land and property in the Muslim Supreme Council, government is seeking 2.7 billion shillings for the renovation of Gadaffi National Mosque, a property listed for sale to recover funds demanded by a renown businessman from Ssembabule District.
26.7 billion shillings allocated to facilitate preparation activities of the international conferences in Uganda that is- the Non-Aligned Movement Summit and G77 under office of the President.
Economists and Political actors are concerned about the borrowing rate especially the supplementary budgets which usually surfaces within the financial year and urge government to absorb such expenditures within the national budget with oversight. Some went ahead claiming such budget allocations and expenditures should directly address issues of livelihood of peasant Ugandans such as poverty, health and education.
