The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah has asked sectoral committees to expedite scrutiny into the budget framework paper for the financial year 2019/2020.
The framework paper, containing budget proposals for the next financial year was presented to parliament by the Minister of State for planning David Bahati last week.
It indicates a proposed increment in the national budget of 4.9 percent from this financial year’s budget of 32.7 trillion Shillings to 34.3 trillion shillings.
A lion-share of the resources is for debt repayment, interest payment and non-resource funds for domestic debt refinancing. Interest payment has an allocation of 2.9 trillion Shillings which makes it the second largest share standing at 11.4 percent of the entire budget.
Oulanyah directed that all standing committees of Parliament halt their work and allow sectoral committees quickly scrutinize the budget estimates and report back to parliament quickly.
He emphasized the need to respect budget consideration timelines outlined in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 2015.
Oulanyah further advised government not to repeat past mistakes of the Ministry of Finance presenting the budget framework without the Certificate of Gender and Equity something that can interrupt the budget consideration.
The 2019/2020 financial year is exceptionally unique because it will be the last year to the end of the second National Development Plan (NDPII) in which government promised to drive Uganda to the middle income status with a per capita income of $1013693 (about sh420,000sh) and with the poverty rate reduced to 14%. Uganda’s per capita income is currently $770 (about sh2.8m) and poverty level has increased from 19% to 21.4%. At the time the NDPII was launched in 2015, Uganda’s per capita income was $693 (about sh2.6m)).
