Parliament passed the budget for the financial year 2015/16 worth 24.9 trillion shillings moving from 14.9 trillion shillings of the last financial year. Government will finance 86 % of the 2015/16 budget with 14 % coming from donors.
The passed budget gives the ministries which include Defense, Energy, and Health and Works trillions of money which Members of Parliament say is causing the budget imbalances compared to other sectors. The Ministry of Works and Transport received the biggest share of 2.8 trillion shillings followed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development with 2.7 trillion shillings and Ministry of Defense came third with 1.4 trillion shillings. The Ministry of Health received 1.2 trillion shillings, Ministry of Finance 1.1trillion, Trade and Industry 79.3 billion shillings, Justice Law and Order 90.6billion shillings while Agriculture bags 485 billion shillings. Ministry of Water and Environment received 520.8billion shillings among others.
The Member of Parliament for Kawempe South Latif Sebagala said that it’s unfortunate that Government allocated less funds to the Agriculture sector because many of Ugandans earn their living from Agriculture; he said the next budget will be a burden to tax payers because there will be more taxes.
The chairperson of the Budget Committee, who is also the MP for Ntenjeru North, Amos Lugolobi defended the huge budget for the Ministry of Defence on the basis that much is required to enable the security agencies to fight terrorism and any other attackers. He noted that the Energy sector was allocated more than two trillion shillings to deal with load shedding, construction of power dams and drilling oil. The Minister of State for Agriculture, Vicent Sempija, said that the allocated funds to Agriculture will be utilized better; adding that huge allocation to other sectors is justified because they also help in driving the agriculture.
The Youth MP for Eastern Region Peter Ogwang said that he is happy with the passed budget because it caters to the needs of the youth saying the budget is entirely focusing on creating jobs for youth in different sectors.
However Amos Lugolombi indicated unfunded priorities which include 4.5billion shillings required to defend government’s civil cases in various courts , 5billion shillings to enhance the salaries for judges, ministry of gender, labour and social development needs 10 billion shillings for paying elderly , public universities need more 10 billion shillings for salary enhancement, judiciary 150 million shillings s for training investigators. Lugolobi also told parliament that the supply of oxygen to all hospitals is underfunded with 10 billion shillings while Ministry of Education and Sports needs more 30 billion shillings for the construction of secondary schools per sub county. The Auditor general’s office, too, needs more 5.2 billion shilling for salary enhancement among others.
