Panic As President Museveni Distances Self From Saving Parliamentary Commissioners

The Minister of Finance Hon Matia Kasaija has today presented the national budget with the total government expenditure for FY 2024/2025 being projected at (Shs. 72,136,504253,466/=) trillion; of which the total appropriation is Shs 37.56 trillion and statutory expenditure is Shs 34.756 trillion. Wages and salaries are projected to amount to Shs 7.926 trillion, non-wage recurrent expenditure to Shs 17.454 trillion, development expenditure from own resources to Shs 6.152 trillion, external project financing Shs 9.584 trillion, appropriation in aid to Shs 293.9 billion, while external debt repayment will amount to Shs 3.149 trillion.

Minister Matia Kasaija noted that the economy has fully recovered from various shocks that have impacted it in the past four years. It is now poised to accelerate towards takeoff, powered by value addition to our agricultural raw materials and the abundant natural resources, growth in industry, tourism and innovations by our scientists.

This budget is greatly for Ugandans still stuck in the subsistence economy. Country men and women under this category, take full advantage of the PDM and other wealth creation funds as well as other support services to join the money economy in any of the four sectors - commercial agriculture, industry, services, or ICT.

The minister has allocated Shs 41.55 billion to undertake the following interventions for further mineral development:

i) Fast-tracking quantification and market studies for all minerals for the purpose of investor promotion;

 ii) Operationalising the National Mining Company;

 iii) Further reviewing and strengthening the fiscal regime for minerals, including regulation of artisanal and small-scale miners;

iv) Developing the e-government mineral production system and data bank for mineral statistics- Minister Kasaija

Shs 2.497 trillion is allocated to enhance education quality, focusing on:

 i. Supporting the new curriculum for S1-S4 students;

 ii. Operationalising all 111 seed secondary schools and completing 27 under the UGIFT Programme.

While delivering his Budget Speech at Kololo grounds, President Yoweri Museveni reacted mercilessly on saving the Parlimentary Commisioners from being sencured ovr service award saga.

''Do not involve me in your struggles with the comissioners and so on.Corruption is very dangerous. Those are other matters''.The President Said.

''Who do those people (corrupt) think they are? We are going to smash you, we have the capacity. Because I don’t concentrate on those things myself, but now that they don’t listen, you have now attracted our full attention, you will see. We shall crash this treachery, this is really betrayal and we are going to finish it''.President Museveni.

The only remaining problem is corruption. As I said the other day, we are going to stamp out that corruption. It is really amazing how people don’t see. NRM is a very powerful force, I don’t know how anybody can think they can play around with it, we are very soft, we uses soft methods, we are always talking. I am like a pastor preaching. But I don’t know why they don’t know that we got a lot of capacity, a lot of power which we shall use if necessary. I really can’t get it because these corrupt people insult our heroes- President Museveni said

On the nationall budget, President Museveni welcomed the proposal of the finance minister of refraining from aaborrowing

''I am glad the Minister explained this borrowing. These newspapers and radios create panic among you people-debt, debt, debt. But I don’t believe in borrowing. I believe in cutting our coat according to our cloth and that is what we should be doing''President Museveni said.

President Museveni says government will continue putting money in PDM, Emyooga and UDB to allow wealth creators access cheap credit.

As at the end of December 2023, Uganda’s total public debt stood at Shs93.38 trillion. Of this amount, external debt was Shs55.37 trillion while domestic debt was Shs38.01 trillion.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt Hon Anita Among told the president that the budget process involves various stakeholders and is majorly guided by the 1995 Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act, 2015, the National Audit Act, 2008, and the Local Government Act, 1997. Your Excellency, the Parliament of Uganda, has appropriately adapted its Rules of Procedure, in part 24, to preserve and foster participation and consultation during the entire budget process.

 This part of the Rules of Procedure comprises 11 rules covering aspects such as the National Budget Framework Paper, Ministerial Policy Statements, Supplementary Budgets, and Appropriation.

''From our studies, during appropriation, Parliament does not reallocate more than 1% of the total annual budget. In a pursuit of greater transparency and accountability, we urge you to take keen interest in the allocation of the remaining 99% of the national budget which is determined by the Executive through Budget Call Circulars and Corrigenda''.She said.

 The speaker However assured the President that in the FY 2024/25, Parliament will duly exercise oversight of public expenditure through its relevant Committees in fulfilment of our commitment to transparency and accountability.