Members of the Budget Committee that was chaired by Hon. Remigio Achia (C) as they met officials from the Finance Ministry
The Minister of State for Finance (General Duties), Hon. Henry Musasizi, has assured legislators on the Budget Committee that the budget for financial year 2025/2026 is consistent with the new National Development Plan IV(NDP).
While appearing before the Committee on Tuesday, 28 January 2025, Musasizi said the programme allocations in the proposed National Budget Framework Paper were derived from the 18 NDP IV programmes and their respective Programme Implementation Action Plans (PIAPs).
“The assessment of the BFP for financial year 2025/2026 is still ongoing in line with the budget process. I will submit a certificate of compliance as required by section 12(6) and (7) of the Public Finance Management Act,” said Musasizi.
This followed concerns by some MPs that the figures proposed in the Budget Framework Paper were not aligned with those in the NDP IV.
Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju (FDC, Kira Municipality) said the Budget Committee interfaced with parliamentary sectoral committees as part of the budgeting process, where inconsistencies in budget allocations were noted.
“When you issued the first budget call circular, ministries had already been allocated money. It is not that they are going to do it in the subsequent stage. The information we are processing here has been given to us by the sectoral committees,” Ssemujju said.
The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST), Ramathan Ggoobi said that the NDP IV has been fully implemented in the National Budget Framework Paper, in terms of the priorities.
The priorities under the 10 fold programme on which NDP IV include affordable cost of money, road maintenance, peace and security, expediting the construction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline and eliminating corruption, among others.
“If you are looking at consistency in terms of money, that is where we are saying it is still premature. The indicative figures were given to plan for the priorities, but detailed estimates will be given later on, where we shall tell in terms of figures, which budget we are able to implement,” Ggoobi said.
Ndorwa County West MP, Hon. Wilfred Niwagaba challenged the position of the PSST while alluding to Section 9(3) of the PFMA Act, that mandates the minister to prepare a Budget Framework Paper that is consistent with the National Development Plan and Charter for Fiscal Responsibility.
The Committee’s Deputy Chairperson, Hon. Remigio Achia commended the consistency of the priorities presented in the BFP with those in the NDP IV but reiterated the need to ensure consistency of the funds allocated to the different priorities.
Ggoobi noted that being the first budget to be implemented in the new National Development Plan, the final estimates for appropriation under the 2025/2026 budget will be made in line with the NDP IV.
“We want to ask ourselves if these are the things we committed to doing. Once we answer that question, the next will be if we are just giving them lip service or we are putting the needed resources. This question can only be answered when we finalise the resource envelope and bring the estimates,” Ggoobi added.
Source:Parliament of Uganda
