The Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs has tabled Shs9.123 trillion in budget for the financial year 2024/25, Eagle Online has established.
This financial year, Defence took the lion’s share, with Shs3.8 trillion allocated to them. The ministry, however, lost the Shs1 billion it had wanted for the construction of the defence museum due to government policy placing a freeze on multi-year projects.
While appearing before the Parliament’s Defence Committee earlier today, officials from the Ministry of Defence revealed that their desired budget for 2024/25 is Shs 9.123 trillion; however, only Shs3.880 trillion has been availed, leaving a shortfall of Shs5.242 trillion.
According to the budget, the Uganda Peoples Defence Force wants Shs62.8 billion for deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Shs27.5 billion for deployment in Karamoja, and Shs40.889 billion is needed for utilities (water and electricity), but no penny has been allocated for that vote.
According to Vincent Ssempijja, Minister of Defence, they want more than Shs2.5 billion to provide security to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
“You know the security of our oil pipeline isn’t catered for; Tanzania is ready, and they have already budgeted for it. It is a thorn in our back; it has remained unfunded,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) asked for Shs31.5 billion to develop an oil and gas monitoring system to be used to monitor all taxpayers within this sector. With the commencement of the construction of the crude oil pipeline, Uganda’s first oil is expected in 2025.
