Civil Society Organisations urge finance to account for all budget released funds to improve transparency

In a bid to improve budget transparency, Civil Society Organisations under their umbrella Civil Society Advocacy Group (CSBAG ) have tasked finance Ministry to account for all the released budget funds.

“whereas the ministry of finance released funds on time, many Ministries, Departments and Agencies and local government continue to decry delayed access to these funds,” Julius Mukunda CSBAG executive Director said.

Mukunda said persistent complaints by Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Local Government of the delayed access to funds forces many to return unspent funds to the consolidated fund.

The CSO made the appeal at the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall during the Ministry of Finance Quarter 3 Expenditure release press briefing organised under the Budget Transparency Initiative (BTI), CSBAG and other BTI members including Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) and Overseas Development Institute (ODI) were present.

Ministry of Finance has released UGX 6,3969.83bn for Quarter 3 in line with its commitment to release funds before 10th of the first month of a new quarter.

The Secretary to the Treasury/Permanent Secretary, Goobi explained the delays are caused by several factors which include delays in submission of quarterly performance reports among others which causes delay in release of funds.

He assured the BTI members that processes are ongoing to address some of these issues within the Government. CSOs however called for stringent measures for such errant accounting officers whose non-performance continues to deny citizens timely access to service delivery.

Ramathan Goobi, Secretary to the Treasury/Permanent Secretary, announced in his expenditure release briefing that the quarter three releases translate into a cumulative release of 77.16% of the approved budgets.

“As at end of Second Quarter, this Ministry had released Ushs 13,693.85 billion, representing 77.16% of the Approved Discretionary Budget, which is Net of Debt Payments, External Financing & Local Revenue “stated Goobi

For Local Governments, the PSST announced that UGX 1,558.301bn has been released based on their annual work plans and annual cash flow plans. He stated that the total release for this quarter of 65.2% brings the total release to 100% of the approved Local Government Development Grant budget. This release, according to Goobi, is in line with the Government’s commitment to reduce the volume of unspent balances by Local Governments at the end of the fiscal year.

On the Parish Development Model, PSST announced that UGX 264bn has been released. This means that 75% of the approved budget has been released. In response to this Mukunda sought response on what would happen to those parishes who up to now have not received their funds.

On the issue of arrears, the Ministry has released UGX 31.80bn for domestic arrears on top of UGX 743.54bn that had been released by Quarter 2.  In a bid to minimize accumulation of arrears in Government institutions, PSST urged Accounting Officers to prioritise timely payment of service providers. He further urged these institutions to secure pre-payment facilities for utilities including water and electricity and issued a directive for services to be turned off.

“If Government Institutions fail to secure pre-paid services, the service providers are encouraged to turn off utility services for any non-complying votes,” Goobi said.

He called on Accounting Officers to pay wages, salaries, pensions, gratuity and clear all domestic arrears and reminded all public servants that National Identification will be used in the confirmation for payments for wages, pensions, and gratuity to minizines fraud and outpayments’

To promote access to public expenditure information, the PSST reminded all Accounting Officers to display payrolls for salaries and monthly pensions on notice boards of all government institutions and cost centers including Schools, Health Centers, and Departments.

On macroeconomic performance, PSST noted that inflation which had risen to 10.7% in October 2022 had declined to 10.6 November and 10.2% in December 2022.  He boasted of positive indicators of economic activity including Purchasing Managers Index recorded at 52.0 in December 2022 and the Business Tendency Index which remains above the threshold of 50. On revenue, the government collected UGX 9,058.20bn between July and November 2022, translating into a surplus of UGX 37.43bn against the target for the period.

He thanked CSOs and the Media fraternity for their support in promoting budget transparency in Uganda.