SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGETING: Government expenditure not informed by planning

Jun 23, 2013

On June 19, 2013, the Parliamentary Committee on Budget approved a supplementary budget of about Sh46b requested by the ministry of finance to pay teachers’ and health workers’ salary arrears.

By Juliet Akello

On June 19, 2013, the Parliamentary Committee on Budget approved a supplementary budget of about Sh46b requested by the ministry of finance to pay teachers’ and health workers’ salary arrears.  Supplementary budgets are meant for covering unforeseen and unavoidable expenses.

If this is true, could it be possible that public servants’ payments can be categorised as such expenses? I want to believe that this category of public servants is the back borne of a populations’ wellbeing in any country. Ugandans are accustomed to the Government’s habit of making supplementary budget requests although this time, for a logical cause. Honestly, teachers and health workers perform great work to an extent that not paying their salaries in time shows the degree of how their services are valued, prioritised and how much importance is attached to them.

The ministry of finance is in possession of approximately sh86b saved from districts from the financial year ending to finance the supplementary budget; but how have these districts performed in terms of service delivery that they are able to save funds to return to the national treasury? In the first place, some districts receive funds late from Central Government, when the financial year is almost ending to an extent that they are unable to absorb it within the limited time.

In the end, these funds are returned to treasury and are budgeted for in the next financial year. Could we be right to assume that such resources are the ones being considered savings in this case? This also seems to suggest that Uganda Revenue Authority performed to its best in revenue collection to enable us have these funds that we can save.

Many people have raised concern over the national budget speech for FY 2013/14 recently presented by the minister of finance, Maria Kiwanuka, for not allocating resources for a population census (which is overdue since the requirement is that it should be carried out every 10 years) to enable the Government know the number of people she should plan and budget for.

Could the current scenario, therefore, indicate the Government is not in the know of the number of public servants, those newly recruited, those on the payroll and those who retire annually? Because if this wasn’t the case, then teachers’ and health workers’ salaries, if were well budgeted for in the FY 2012/13, would not be an unforeseen expense. Therefore, National Planning Authority should conduct planning (with relevant statistics) for what courses people should be studying to bridge national human resource skills gap. This information should be submitted to ministry of education to guide how many students are admitted in institutions of higher learning and for what course.

According to a study by the Economic Commission for Africa in 2007, on “The Role of African Parliaments in the Budgetary Processes”, Members of Parliament are very instrumental in the budget process and have the ability to express citizens’ preferences/priorities by using their mandatory powers to influence the allocation and utilisation of national resources. Parliamentary involvement in the budgeting process is a sign of sound governance practice in terms of citizens’ participation, transparency, accountability and national ownership of the budget.  

Their role in monitoring and controlling budgetary spending is part of their oversight function on the implementation of Government policies (National budget) and operations directly. They are legally able to call upon ministers and Government officials to justify budget allocations, explain any deviation of spending from policy priorities, demand occasional reports on spending and make other request. Could the fiscal irresponsibility result from executive dominance over budgets?

The writer works with Uganda Debt Network.

 

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