The minister of Finance Matia Kasaija has tabled a budget proposal of Shs 41.2 trillion for the financial year 2021/2022.
The budget is Shs 4.3 trillion less than last year’s budget. According to the proposed budget tabled before parliament’s budget committee, governance and security will take the lion’s share with Shs 7.7 trillion.
This will be followed by human capital development, which covers education and high-level training at Shs 6.8 trillion. Integrated transport infrastructure and services will take Shs 3.9 trillion, agro industrialization will take Shs 1.4 trillion, and regional development Shs 1.2 trillion.
Kasaija says that in the next financial year, they plan to promote inclusive and sustainable growth, accelerate industrialization, and maintain peace and security and human capital development.
In the proposed budget, government plans to invest Shs 490 billion to promote the parish model in which the government plans to spend Shs 39 million at every parish to promote inclusive and sustainable growth.
According to Kasaija the model is aimed at consolidating the delivery of social services, and the parish will become the planning and implementation unit.
According to the minister, they have decided to bring together all the current funds for development like the Youth Livelihood Fund, Operation Wealth Creation, the Women Entrepreneurship program among others and created a parish model which they will use to assist Ugandans to develop. Only the Emyooga, a new poverty alleviation program will not be affected.
“That system of the parish model…it is also meant to cater for value addition. 2-3 parishes if they are producing the same product, then we need to create a unit that will process what they are producing. Unbalance development in the country; this you’re touching my heart. I don’t want to see Uganda of those who have and those who don’t have. It is dangerous, it is very dangerous,” said Kasaija.
Butambala MP Muwanga Kivumbi said that too much money is going into domestic refinancing and amortization. He says government needs to rethink this, as budgets are read and passed every other financial year. According to Kivumbi, Shs 6 trillion will be going towards interest and amortization.
The vice-chairperson of the committee, Patrick Isiagi Opolot said that it is not right to allocate funds to be handed over to citizens, and yet people don’t have clean water and access to health services.
“You’re allocating climate change, natural resources and environment – water 1.1% of the budget. These parishes you want to give Emyooga and so on to make people rich, [but] if I get money and am drinking bad water, it means I must get medicine. Hon. minister a country where we can’t give our people clean and safe water, it means we’re joking,” said Opolot.
He said that there are loopholes in Kasaija’s presentation, saying the parish model presented is not well researched. He also says that the Shs 39 million per parish is not sustainable. He said they will wait to see what the ministry brings on the table next time, but as it stands, the proposal is premature.
**********
URN