Ibrahim Ssemujju the Shadow Minister for Finance and MP Kira Municipality has castigated the government for exhibiting a high level of fiscal indiscipline by running the national budget through supplementary budgets, saying that had he been the President of Uganda, most of the Ministers involved in these kiosk-like supplementary budgets would be serving jail term at Luzira Maximum Prison.
Ssemujju’s remarks came in after Parliament approved the Shs288.624 billion supplementary budget for which; Shs132.634 billion is meant for purchase of shares in the East African Oil Pipeline (EACOP) by the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), while Shs152 billion is meant for the construction of the Hoima City Stadium by National Council of Sports in preparation for the 2027 African Cup of Nations.
“Budgeting this country through a supplementary, which the Auditor General calls fiscal indiscipline, people are running this country like a kiosk every week, because last week we passed a supplementary here. What has happened in the last 10 days that you didn’t know there would be a need to construct a stadium, that there would be a need to acquire equity in a pipeline because we passed a supplementary just 10days ago, now you come trafficking another one,” said Ssemujju.
Ssemujju added, “If I was in charge, I would send all Ministers to Luzira, 10 days ago we passed a supplementary, then after you come with another one, saying wait, we have another one, and you are my Ministers, each one of you would be in Luzira, that is where the warrant of detention will find you,”
However, Attorney General Kiwanuka Kiryowa defended the 3rd Supplementary schedule saying some of the items, like acquiring equity in the East African Oil Pipeline hadn’t been known to the government until recently.
“The issue of EACOP was actually unforeseeable because the financing model was clearly to be done by our partner. Unfortunately, because of the change in the world order and economic setting, we have been required to put in equity. It wasn’t known to us at the time we passed the past budget,” explained Kiryowa.
The Attorney General added, “On AFCON, actually communication coming from my office, the contracts are available for me to sign and I am requiring the Ministry of Education and Sports to show me the source of funds before that contract can be signed. If Parliament is happy to wait until next financial year, we will lose timelines as far as the deadline to meet that, unfortunately for me the law is to approve a contract for signing without knowing the source of funds.”
