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Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Ministry of Finance are locked in a power struggle over control of the national budget.

The conflict centers on the authority to reallocate funds to Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

While Parliament traditionally holds the power to approve and appropriate funds, Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST) of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, argues that reallocation falls under the purview of the cabinet.

This disagreement erupted after legislators on Tuesday, March 19^th questioned the Ministry of Finance for reallocating over sh1.437 trillion without parliamentary approval.

The PSST defended the move, claiming the reallocation fell within the legal 3% threshold allowed for supplementary budgets.

Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi MP for Butambala County and chairperson PAC Central displays the rejected ministry of finance report. (Photo by Maria Wamala)

However, MPs remain skeptical. The lack of parliamentary oversight on these reallocations raises concerns about transparency and accountability in budgetary spending.

This clash highlights a fundamental question: who ultimately controls the purse strings in Uganda?

The outcome of this power struggle could have significant implications for the country's fiscal discipline and the effectiveness of its budgetary process. The chairperson of the PAC-Central Government, Muwanga Kivumbi, told Ggoobi that he was operating outside the law.

If the ministry is dissatisfied about the budget, rather than do reallocations themselves, Kivumbi said the ministry should forward recommendations, including reasons for the recommendations, to the Parliament which has the power to do reallocations.

Although Parliament is clothed with appropriation and budget approval powers, Ggoobi argued that MPs have no power to increase the budget of the country beyond any amount.

Kivumbi accused PSST Ggoobi and his ministry of the unauthorised removal of money from Government and reallocating it to other projects. Ggoobi’s view is that MPs overstepped their appropriation and budget approval role.

But Kivumbi insisted, “You are operating outside of the ambit of the law, and this distorts the budget. This is budget indiscipline. And it's the way you work,” he said.

Given the fact that once Parliament approves the budget, the process is final, the committee said, the only option available for the Executive is to use the 3% expenditure window under the Public Finance and Management Act, 2015 to fix the gaps within the budget and seek retrospective approval from Parliament.

The other window, he added, is to table a supplementary budget. However, the Finance Ministry reallocated funds to UNRA, Ministry of Works, Atiak Sugar Factory irregularly according to the committee.

Silas Aogon (Kumi Municipality, Kumi (INDP), quizzed finance ministry over budget distortion. He argued that supplementary requests should be initiated by the user entity, which was not the case with what the ministry did.

“There is no way finance can allocate money without the request coming from the user vote which is what actually finance ministry did. Is the ministry becoming another parliament within the Parliament of Uganda,” Aogon asked.

PSST insisted that Parliament should draw a line separating budgeting from appropriation saying that the role of Parliament if budgeting and not appropriation.

“He explained that they simply reinstated the budget. But MPs questioned where finance ministry got the unfettered powers to reinstate the budget.

Xavier Kyooma Akampurira (Ibanda County North, Ibanda (NRM), questioned why finance ministry likes to use their legal 3 percent to appropriate moneys to activities that Parliament has rejected.

Ggoobi said the disease is on the difference between budgeting and appropriation, noting that this is where there is an issue. “All the other issues are symptoms. “What should be done before the law is amended,” he asked MPs.

The committee Vice Chairperson, Gorreth Namugga (Mawogola County South, Ssembabule (NUP), said before amendments, PSST should operate under the law.