Parliament has completed the official task of studying the nitty gritty

Each departmentally related committee consists of not less than 15 and not more than 30 members selected by the Business Committee from a list provided by the different Party Whips.

Each of the sectoral committees has presented a report to the Parliament Budget Committee led by Kachumbala County MP Patrick Opolot Isiagi. The said committees’ report contains a number of proposals concerning their sectors.

At the moment, the Budget Committee is locked in a bull session in the Parliament Conference.

This is to harmonise the proposals contained in the committees’ report and finalise a joint report with a set of proposals.

Thereafter, Budget Committee’s proposals are scheduled to be debated and passed during today’s afternoon plenary session.

According to section 9 (8) of the Public Finance Management Act, Parliament is required to approve the Budget Framework Paper by 1st February.

The draft national budget the executive presented to parliament for scrutiny is of Shs 43trillion with Shs 25.5trillion expected to come from government revenue collections and the remainder is expected to come from internal and external borrowing.

This done through what is known as deficit financing, which is defined government funding of spending by borrowing.

A week ago, the finance ministry released money for ministries and other government entities to use in the third quarter of the current financial year to cater for expenditures for the months of January, February and March 2022.

The funds released include capitation grants for both primary and secondary schools. Primary and secondary schools resumed studies two weeks ago.

As in other financial years, the finance ministry has been releasing the Shs 44.7trillion national budget for the 2021/2022 financial year on a quarterly basis.

The Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi advised all accounting officers in the different ministries and other government entities to prioritise payment of salaries, pension, gratuity, rent, and utilities.

Last year, legislators approved a Shs 44.7 trillion budget for the 2021/2022 financial year, which decreased by shs714 billion for the first time compared to the approved resource envelope of 2020/2021.

According to the report of the Budget Committee, the drop in this financial year is largely attributed to the projected decrease of Shs 2.4 billion in external financing for project support.

The report, presented during a plenary sitting chaired by then Speaker Rebecca Kadaga on 7 May 2021, stated that the resource envelope is expected to be financed by domestic revenue constituting 76.7 percent and 23.3 per cent of external revenue.

“It should be observed that Shs 200 billion will be drawn from the Petroleum Fund to specifically finance oil road infrastructure during the financial year 2021 /22,” said Hon. Amos Lugoloobi, the Chairperson of the Budget Committee at the time.

In the approved budget for 2021/2022, sector allocations see Defence took Shs 3.4 trillion, Uganda National Roads Authority shs3.1 trillion, Ministry of Health Shs1.4 trillion, Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development shs1 trillion and Ministry of Agriculture Shs500 billion.

It has been reported that the greatest share of resources is going towards debt-related payments, inclusive of domestic arrears at 38 percent.