MPs demand answers on unutilized anti-tick funds

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Lawmakers on Friday clashed over a recommendation to allocate sh23.08 billion to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for clinical trials and manufacturing of an anti-tick vaccine.

The disagreement played out during a meeting in the conference hall between Parliament’s Budget Committee, chaired by Achia Remegio, and the Presidential Affairs Committee, chaired by Alex Bakunda Byarugaba.

At the time, members had convened to consider and consolidate ministerial policy statements of entities under the latter committee for the 2026/27 financial year.

Contention stemmed from Byarugaba’s own report, in which he noted that while STI had been allocated sh25 billion out of the required sh48 billion in the 2024/25 FY, it had delayed transmitting the funds onwards to grantees who were expected to undertake the second phase of clinical trials.

The funds in question were meant for the 100L bioreactor, GEA Disk centrifuge, Cold room, among others (sh19.011b), development of geospatial and remote sensed system for tracking vaccinated animals’ health, movement and behavior (sh6.535b), equipping the Ngoma Livestock Clinical Trial Vaccine Incubation center (sh16.55b) and non-wage recurrent expenditure costs (sh6.709b).

Instead, lawmakers heard that the money was reportedly kept in the Uganda Development Bank, where it has remained idle.

“During interactions with the STI, the Committee was informed that the money was held on an account in Uganda Development Bank, and that the total amount held was sh46b, of which sh25b, was earmarked for the Anti-Tick Vaccine research project. In February 2026, the Committee directed that STI should urgently fast-track the release of the funds held in UDB for the financing of innovative ventures, including the Anti-Tick Vaccine research,” Byarugaba alluded.

“During consideration of the MPS, the STI informed the Committee that the money had been transferred from UDB to the STI account in Bank of Uganda on April 1, 2026. By the time of writing this report, no funds had been released to the intended grantees,” he added.

Backlash

Visibly upset, several legislators, including chairperson Patrick Opolot Isiagi (Kachumbala county, NRM) and Twalla Fadhil (Tingey county, NRM), resisted any fresh allocation to the ministry, arguing that it had already demonstrated an inability to utilise previous releases effectively.

“How can money be appropriated, released, and you are telling us it is not used….And you have not arrested people?” Isiagi wondered.

“Actually, this is an abuse of office. If money is released and is not returned, and somebody gets it and keeps it somewhere, what does that mean? Services are being lost,” he added.

Chipping in, Twalla remarked, “My proposal is that when we have given you money, and you are not using it, and then you want some other money, we shouldn’t STI money. Until they fast-track the release of funds for the anti-tick vaccine. This thing, we have seen even other Ministers arrested. Because you can’t keep money for two years and then keep asking for more. You are not telling us who benefits from the interest.”

Consensus

As tempers were beginning to rise, Otuke County MP Paul Omara managed to convince colleagues to hear from STI before they can make any recommendation.

“Because we are working for this country, we really need to find out why these people are dilly dallying,” Omara suggested.