The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST) in the Ministry of Finance, Ramathan Ggoobi, has accused some accounting officers in Ministries, Departments, and Government Agencies (MDAs) of deliberately excluding critical service delivery items from their primary budget schedules. These omissions are later used to justify supplementary budget requests that raise suspicions of corruption.
Addressing journalists on the government’s vision to grow Uganda’s economy from USD 50 billion to USD 500 billion by 2040, Ggoobi emphasized the ministry’s commitment to eradicating wasteful and unnecessary expenditures. He noted that available resources must be directed towards productive sectors to achieve this ambitious economic transformation.
Ggoobi revealed that intelligence reports have uncovered a pattern where some accounting officers prioritize less significant items, such as travel, entertainment, and repairs, in their primary budgets. This approach allows them to manipulate the system for personal gain, pushing essential service delivery priorities to supplementary requests.
“This manipulation defers key priority aspects to the tail end, forcing them to rely on supplementary budgets,” Ggoobi explained. “We are not only rejecting such suspicious requests but also holding culpable officers accountable for these irregularities that waste public funds.”
In the last financial year alone, the Ministry of Finance rejected suspicious supplementary budget requests amounting to UGX 1.7 trillion from various MDAs. Moving forward, Ggoobi announced that the ministry is implementing strategic interventions, including the complete digitization of government systems and public procurement processes, to curb corruption.
These measures come as MDAs initiate preparations for their budget framework papers for the upcoming financial year. Ggoobi’s warning underscores the ministry’s resolve to tighten oversight and ensure public funds are spent on genuine and productive initiatives.
Corruption in Uganda remains a significant challenge. The 2021 Cost of Corruption Report by the Inspectorate of Government estimates that the country loses up to UGX 9.14 trillion annually to corruption. In 2019 alone, UGX 614 billion was lost to corruption in procurement and budgeting processes.
In a related development, the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity in the Office of the President recently dispatched a delegation to Singapore to study best practices in combating corruption. The lessons from this benchmarking tour are expected to enhance Uganda’s anti-corruption strategies.
PS Ggoobi warns Accounting Officers over budget irregularities
