The 2016/17 Budget speech will be read out later today at a function to be presided over by President Yoweri Museveni.
Usually, the budget speech is read by the finance minister but this year’s budget comes at a time when the country has no substantive finance minister because Mr Matia Kasaija has not yet been vetted by the Parliament’s Appointments Board.
Mr Kasaija was on Monday reappointed to the finance docket but according to the Constitution, he is supposed to be cleared by Parliament before he can take on any official duties.
on Wednesday morning Ugandan during the sitting of the whole house approved Vice President, Edward Sekandi, Prime Minister, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda and Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija. Kasaija will subsequently present the budget in the afternoon.
Contacted for comment over the issue, finance spokesperson Jim Mugunga said the budget is the ‘responsibility of the President’.
“He can designate any MP, and if that MP happens to be Matia Kasaija, then that is it,” Mr Mugunga said on phone today.
The delay by the President’s appointees to swear in caused a hitch between the Executive and the Legislature during the State of the Nation address last week at the Serena International Conference Centre, where the outgoing ministers were not accorded ‘front bench’ seats, forcing most of them to tussle it out for seats.
