Parliament on Tuesday approved a supplementary budget totaling Shillings 33 billion for the current financial year 2019/2020 meant to facilitate maintenance of several Kampala Capital City roads, finance interventions for street children and others.
Parliament on Tuesday approved a supplementary budget of 33 Billion Shillings for the current financial year 2019/2020. The budget will cater for maintenance of several Kampala Capital City roads, interventions for street children and others.
The funds were approved during a plenary session chaired by Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, following a Budget Committee report presented by the Chairperson Amos Lugoloobi.
Out of the approved 33.3 billion shillings, Shillings 10 billion is for road maintenance works on Upper Kololo Terrace, Queensway, pothole patching on Wilson Road, Sikh Road, Channel Street, Johnston Street, Yusuf Lule Road, Portbell Road, Lubiri Ring Road, Masaka Road, Salaama Road, Luwafu Road, Naguru East road and Kira Road, among others.
Shillings 3.9 billion will go to the Ministry of Finance to cater for salary obligations under the Privatization Unit for five months from February to June 2020, 10 billion for Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) to operationalize the machining, manufacturing and industrial skills training centre at Namanve and others.
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development will receive Shillings 2.4 billion to prioritize interventions targeting 1,500 street children and Shillings 776 million for Local Governments to cater for additional Local revenue collected by Luweero District (550 million) Mitooma District (80 million) and Kyenjojo District (150 million), additional co-funding of Shillings 9.062bn for Uganda Inter-governmental Fiscal Transfer (UGIFT) to Local Governments for Seed Secondary Schools and upgrade of Health Centre IIs to Health Centre IIIs as Government policy.
“The Committee has considered the plight of street kids picked recently by the Ministry and now housed at different permanent and temporary centres and the challenges associated with rehabilitating, feeding and resettling them as well as ensuring surveillance to limit new ones from getting into cities and other urban areas. The Committee, therefore, recommends that Shilling 2.4 billion be provided as requested to ameliorate the problem of street kids,” said Lugoloobi before his report was approved by parliament.
The approval came amidst concerns by MPs from across the political divide on the continued presence of supplementary budget requests that do not meet the guidelines outlined under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The Act requires supplementary budget requests to be unavoidable, unforeseeable and absorbable.
Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the Opposition Chief Whip blamed the government for poor planning saying that the funds being requested should have been accommodated in the budget for the current financial year 2019/2020.
Kadaga tasked Lugoloobi to explain to parliament whether the requested funds meant the guidelines provided for supplementary budgets.
But Lugoloobi defended the supplementary request said that it was in line with all financial requirements. He said that government cannot for example run away from its commitment to pay salaries of Privatization unit officers.
Following his submission, Kadaga put the question and the MPs approved the supplementary budget request.
Olive Nakatudde
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