By eastafrican gazette
Uganda Parliament
The shs288.624 billion supplementary budget, which had been previously rejected, has now been approved by the Uganda Parliament.
The rejection had come from the Parliament’s Budget Committee, who deemed the request unlawful as it had been referred by the Speaker of Parliament which they said was unlawful.
Members of the budget committee requested the chairperson to clarify the legality of the speaker’s referral of the matter to the committee, as the law dictates that the committee is limited to handling business referred by the house.
Ssemujju Nganda, the Member of Parliament for Kira Municipality, also doubling as the shadow minister for finance, emphasized in his statement that the budget committee is solely referred to by the house, highlighting that the Speaker is not the house, and can not act outside the law.
Isiagi Opolot, the chairperson of the committee, emphasized that the committee cannot begin processing the supplementary request until it is the business of the house to determine the next course of action.
“The House will decide either to process it there or delegate it to this committee,” he noted.
On March 16, 2024, the Parliament finally gave its approval to the supplementary schedule of shs288.624 billion, in heated debate.
Out of this amount, shs132.634 billion has been allocated for the purchase of shares in the East African Oil Pipeline (EACOP) by the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC). Additionally, shs152 billion has been designated for the construction of the Hoima City Stadium by the National Council of Sports, in order to prepare for the upcoming 2027 African Cup of Nations.
Nevertheless, Ssemujju criticized the government for demonstrating a significant lack of fiscal discipline by resorting to supplementary budgets for the national budget.
He stated that if he were the President of Uganda, many of the Ministers responsible for “these makeshift” supplementary budgets would be imprisoned at Luzira Maximum Prison.
“If I was in charge, I would send all Ministers to Luzira, 10days ago we passed a supplementary, then after you come with another one, saying wait, we have another one, and you are my Ministers, each one of you would be in Luzira, that is where the warrant of detention will find you,” he added.
On his take, the Attorney General, Kiwanuka Kiryowa defended the third supplementary schedule saying some of the items, like acquiring equity in the East African Oil Pipeline hadn’t been known to Government until recently.