Budget committee rejects radio deal

PARLIAMENT|EDUCATION|RADIOS

KAMPALA - MPs on Parliament's Budget Committee have rejected the proposal by the education ministry to spend sh336b for the purchase of radios for learners.

This was disclosed by some MPs who attended the closed-door meeting held by the budget committee during the consideration of procurement of radios for all households in Uganda, alongside other supplementary requests.

The legislators confirmed how there are not going to be any further consideration on the matter by the committee, which is preparing a report to be tabled before Parliament because government failed to disclose the source of funding for the item.

Charles Illukor (Kumi County) said their recommendation to Parliament is to have the proposal to buy radios for learners rejected by the House.

"Even if the funding is secured, there is no need to actually approve the procurement of radios because there are many reasons the committee found that don't add up, it is just wastage of resources," Illukor noted.

West Budama North MP Richard Othieno further divulged details of the meeting, saying although Government had earlier highlighted where the funding for all the other supplementary items would be coming from, the source of the money for the radios was not clear.

Last month, Minister of State for Planning, David Bahati, tabled before Parliament a supplementary request of sh6.4 trillion to finance the budget deficit.

In his presentation, Bahati told MPs how funds would be acquired through a loan from Stanbic Bank Uganda, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance the supplementary schedule.

In the supplementary request, the education ministry sought for sh336b to purchase nine million radio sets, and that a Chinese company had already been procured to assemble the radios at the Kampala Business Park in Namanve Mukono.

During the scrutiny of the supplementary, MPs realised the fund for the radios was not part of the loans from Stanbic Bank and IMF as the finance ministry had earlier purported.

It is against this background that the legislators raised a red flag and shot down the procurement proposal.

"By law, we are not allowed to approve expenditure, where there is no revenue. So, every expenditure we approve must have matching revenue, in this case, there is no matching revenue." Othieno said.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics figures of 2017/18, out of the 8.9milion households in Uganda, only 4.3 million have radio sets.

However, government plans to procure nine million radios, of which five million will be manufactured locally and the other four million imported and supplied to the beneficiaries in 90 days to learners for e-learning during this Covid-19 pandemic.

MPs, therefore, questioned the feasibility of the entire process, reasoning that, with the improved standards of living in the country, the number of those must have increased and, therefore, the nine million radios being proposed are unnecessary.

Othieno further revealed that the decision to reject the approval of money for radios was strengthened by the assessment report furnished to the committee by the education ministry on the viability of radio as a model of learning.

He said in the assessment, the communities told the education ministry that they do not prefer the mode of radios as a teaching method.

"The ministry realised that it was difficult to engage learners at the same time because they attend different programmes at home. They noted that there are many areas, including the central region, where UBC does not reach." Othieno said.

Last week, the budget committee conducted an impromptu due diligence tour at Orion Transformers and Electrics Limited in Namanve Industrial Park, a company that had been fronted by the Ministry of Health to assemble and supply radios to learners.

During the visit, MPs discovered that the Chinese firm does not have any experience in the manufacture of radios, instead, the company assembles electricity transformers, contrary to reports that it assembles radios.