Defence requires another sh132b

By Mary Karugaba and Moses Walubiri

Two and a half month to the end of financial year, the ministry of finance wants parliament to approve more sh132.5b for the ministry of Defence.

If approved, the supplementary will bring the total expenditure for the ministry of defense for the financial year ending 2011/12 to sh627.7b.

The money is part of the sh500b supplementary budget tabled to Parliament for approval by Finance State Minister Matia Kasaija. Some of the monies have already been spent by the ministries.

Earlier, in February2012, government presented a supplementary budget schedule no.1 to parliament amounting to Sh215.6b, of which sh161.72b (75%) is for recurrent expenditure, sh25.88b (12%) for development expenditure and sh28.0b (13%) for statutory recurrent expenditure.

State House known for huge supplementary requests wants sh1.3b while the Office of the President is seeking sh5b to finance activities to commemorate Uganda's independence Golden Jubilee.

The Ministry of Justice wants sh2.7b of which sh355m is to be paid for consultancy short term legal fees the ministry incurred while defending President Yoweri  Museveni in a case of Dr. Jessie Mashate Vs the President.  

Mashate, a London based Ugandan journalist had dragged the President to the British court in London, initially, in his personal capacity as Museveni, claiming that he had breached a gentleman's agreement    evidenced in writing  to compensate him for his newspaper, The Weekend Digest, which the Ministry of Information and National Guidance had closed down in 1986.  The President won the case.

Other ministries seeking supplementary include local Government (sh3.3b), Health (sh4b), Gender (sh549m), Water and environment (sh133m), ICT (sh3.6b), East African Community (sh14b).

Kampala City Authority (sh695m), Uganda Cancer Institute (sh339m), Uganda Heart Institute (sh445), Makerere University (sh2.4b), Uganda Revenue Authority (sh10b),    Police Force (sh53b),  Prisons (sh7b) among others.