Barnabas Tinkasimire, the Buyaga West MP asked that the document presented by the Minister be withdrawn since it does not tally with the Budget Framework Paper that was tabled before the House in December 2021.
Parliament’s
Budget Committee on Tuesday questioned the discrepancies in figures under the
National Budget Framework Paper presented by the Ministry of Finance.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance led by the Minister of State for
Planning, Amos Lugoloobi appeared before the committee to formally present and
discuss the 43 Trillion Shillings budget for the coming financial year
2022/2023 but MPs noticed that the figures were inconsistent.
The Public Finance Management Act, 2015 sets February 1 as the deadline for
Parliament to consider and approve the Budget Framework Paper. After this
process, Parliament is then expected to approve the National Budget by May
31.
After Lugoloobi tabled a document detailing the resource allocation by programme,
MPs highlighted differences in the figures leading to a procedural matter
raised by Butambala County MP, Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi.
Kivumbi wondered whether the Budget Committee can discuss the budget without
harmonization of the discrepancies in the documents which must lead to the
final approval by the House. The variance in the figures was highlighted under
Governance and Security, Human Capital Development, Integrated Transport
Infrastructure and Services, Agro-industrialization, and others.
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Barnabas Tinkasimire, the Buyaga West MP asked that the document presented by
the Minister be withdrawn since it does not tally with the Budget Framework
Paper that was tabled before the House in December 2021.
Lugoolobi, then asked MPs to consider figures carried in the Budget Framework
Paper given the anomalies in his current document.
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Patrick Isiagi, the Budget Committee Chairperson disagreed with the Minister
and dismissed the meeting to another day. He said that the figures have to be
consistent and well-coordinated.
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Henry Musasizi the Minister of State for Finance-General Duties downplayed
queries by the MPs, saying the Budget Framework Paper is largely a working
document.
He said that things keep changing and that after the Budget Framework Paper was
laid, there was an addendum with 1.2 trillion Shillings that was not captured.
Musasizi further explained that the 1.2 trillion Shillings do not necessarily
mean that the total budget would increase since it has come from the re-allocation
of resources.
