Parliament has re-allocated Shs750 billion after revisiting the Appropriation Bill, 2024, which President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni initially objected to assent to.
In the 2024/2025 Budget passed earlier, legislators had allocated the Shs750 billion to critical areas including procurement of ambulances, maintenance of bridges, construction of sub-county headquarters, and support for income-generating projects for families, among others.
During a sitting of the House on Tuesday, 02 July 2024, Speaker Anita Among read the President’s letter outlining his reasons for rejecting the bill.
President Museveni cited issues such as indiscipline in budgeting, sabotage of national priorities, and corruption among lawmakers.
The Bill, which sought to authorize public expenditure from the Consolidated Fund, was first passed on 16 May 2024 and sent to the President for approval on 31 May 2024.
In his 22nd June 2024 letter accompanying the returned Appropriation Bill 2024, President Museveni accused MPs of sabotage and interfering with his duties of budgeting for Uganda, stating that Parliament has reallocated over Shs3 trillion in four years.
“The recent case of the Members of Parliament who were arrested for alleged offences has again highlighted the mistake of MPs interfering with the Constitutional mandate of the President by reallocating funds budgeted for core sectors of the economy. In the past four financial years, MPs have reallocated Shs3.1 trillion. This is real sabotage. When we reconstructed the Kampala-Masaka Road, we used Shs440 billion; therefore, diverting Shs3.1 trillion in four years is equivalent to aborting nine major roads of the Kampala-Masaka type or a much larger number of smaller roads,” President Museveni’s letter read in part.
“You have seen how much the Tirinyi-Pallisa-Kumi Road has helped the people of the area by avoiding the need to pass through Mbale City when traveling to Soroti. You have seen how the Musiita-Mayuge-Namayingo-Busia Road has benefited the people of that area. You have seen how the Mukono-Katosi-Nkonkonjeru-Njebga Road has improved the lives of the people there. Yet, for the Kumi-Pallisa Road, we used Shs443.42 billion only. Imagine how much happier Ugandans would be if you had tarmacked the Kumi-Ngora-Serere Road, the Soroti-Amuria-Abim Road, and the Kanoni-Mityana Road,” President Museveni’s letter continued.
Erute South MP Hon. Jonathan Odur and Butambala District Women Representative Hon. Aisha Kabanda supported the proposal, noting that the Budget Committee lacked the moral authority to investigate the issues due to corruption accusations.
However, MPs were displeased with the President’s accusations, particularly the Executive branch blaming Parliament for deviating from government priorities.
Kira Municipality MP Hon. Semujju Nganda criticized the President’s proposal to prioritize ROKO over other public needs, stating, “The President’s priority is that you move money from ambulances and regional referral hospitals to create Shs300bn for ROKO, a private company.”
State Minister for Finance Hon. Henry Musasizi clarified that these funds were for government obligations under the share subscription agreement, including servicing ROKO Bills of Exchange and payment of EFT bank charges of Bank of Uganda.
The proposal was put to a vote by the Speaker Anita Among and unanimously seconded by the MPs, allowing Finance Minister Hon. Matia Kasaija to move a motion for the House to reconsider the Bill.
The reconsidered Appropriation Bill approved an expenditure of over Shs72.136 trillion, reflecting a Shs14 trillion increase from the initial estimates of Shs58.34 trillion. The budget includes Shs18.9 trillion for recurrent expenditures and Shs34.7 trillion for development.
Comments are closed.