All accounting officers have been asked to undertake fiscal consolidation measures to support further economic recovery within the limited resources available at their disposal.

Meeting accounting officers for central government institutions on Monday, finance ministry permanent secretary, who is also Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi, said with limited resources, the accounting officers should limit external borrowing to only critical projects, improve revenue collection and expenditure. 

Accordingly, he said during the execution of the 2023/24 budget, accounting officers should concentrate on funding only key priorities to increase momentum in socio-economic transformation, namely: The construction of the standard gauge railway, rehabilitation of the meter gauge railway, solar-powered irrigation, implementation of the Parish Development Model, Emyooga, Uganda Development Bank, road maintenance, coffee processing, funding of science and innovation such as the Kiira Motors and vaccines and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The money, according to Ggoobi, should also be spent on security, health, including medical supplies under National Medical Stores, education and the provision of clean and safe water for human consumption and for production. 

This is in addition to supporting private sector development by maintaining financing to Uganda Development Bank, Microfinance Support Centre, Agriculture Credit Facility, Small Business Recovery Fund; supporting enterprise groups as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, among others.

Audit of the payroll

He reemphasized the need to hold back any recruitments till the ongoing payroll audit is completed.

“The Government is carrying out a special audit on the payroll following wage bill overruns and persistent supplementary funding requests to cater for shortfalls on salaries, pension and gratuity. The results of this audit shall inform our actions on the payroll. Secondly, please note that all staff who have not been verified during the ongoing special audit by the Auditor General should be deleted from the payroll as soon as the audit is completed,” he said.

Ggoobi said the officers should also ensure the continuation of only critical ongoing projects and other multi-year commitments; halting new non-concessional projects, except those already provided for in the fiscal framework, or those with no direct or indirect claim on the Consolidated Fund; and restricting new vehicle purchases to only hospital ambulances, vehicles for medical supplies/distribution, agricultural extension services, security and revenue mobilisation. 

“In addition to the above principles as guided by Cabinet, I wish to re-emphasize the following key issues in the Budget Execution Circular; the policy on advertising in Government print and oral media was reversed by H.E. The President and this has already been communicated by the Prime Minister,” he said.

Ggoobi informed the accounting officers that the ministry's Budget Monitoring and Accountability Unit, together with the joint monitoring of UGIFT projects, had observed that there was limited supervision of works on ongoing projects.

“As accounting officers, I urge you to regularly monitor the implementation of Government programmes and projects. This will ensure adherence to all contractual obligations; structural progress and quality and adherence to environment and social requirements,” he said.