By Julius Mugaga Tukacungurwa/Umoja Standard.
Kampala, Uganda: On Tuesday July/4th/2023, while weighing in on the recently passed FY2023/24 Budget, Dr. Fred Muhumuza, a Scholar from Makerere University Business School (MUBS) and renown Ugandan economist stated that for the budget to be effective must be answering the following questions for Ugandan citizens and farmers;
Are you in the budget?, Are your conditions in the budget? Are the issues that matter to you in the budget?
“Are issues that matter to the community in the budget? The government is allocating huge sums of money on unnecessary things instead of allocating it to developing the economy”. He said.
He emphasized that the Budget should address challenges at hand instead of issues that are of less priority.
He went on to mention that there are other issues that government spends on but are initially not budgeted for hence straining the budget, a case in point for this year, over 100 army officers have been retired and are entitled to pension and gratuity in addition on terror attack alert preparedness in this Financial Year.
On the same accession, Fr. Hillary Muhezangango, the National Director of Caritas Uganda-the Development arm of the Catholic Church advocated that the budget process should start from the grass-root. He argued that the National Budget should fully involve locals because at the end of the day it affects them directly, therefore if their issues are not captured, they don’t benefit.
He also appealed that governance should be rectified “if we are to make a path to economic growth”.
“From Genesis, God gave us a role to be masters of the world and ourselves but have falled short of that”. He stated.
In her opening statements, Betty Rose Aguti, who doubles as the Policy and Advocacy Specialist at Caritas Uganda and National Coordinator Uganda Farmer’s Common Voice Platform (UFCVP) appealed to participants to cite the missing links in this FY2023/24 and devise ways of closing the gap.
“Of recent, we have been in different regions to support in getting farmers’ voice to ensure they are part of planning”. Aguti said.
“Let’s revisit our backbone (agriculture) when it is still strong and agree what we should prioritize”. He added.
Relatedly, Richard Oboi, the Soroti District planner clang to the government to up local government’s budget in order to revitalize agriculture and related activities to inspire economic growth.He added that this would be prepared in local man’s (local) language
And to James Hill Aringo, the Uganda Farmer’s Common Voice Platform (UFCVP) Assistant Regional Coordinator- Eastern Chapter admitted that even though Uganda has made a milestone in provision of services it is still short of citizens’ participation in entire budget process.
He pointed even when in FY2021/22, Agriculture contributed up to 50.3 percent of the country’s total exports, corruption is still a major hinderance, recommended capacity building of Civil Society Organizations and citizens in planning and budgeting process at all levels.
“This will enable them to understand the new budgeting processes”. He said.
Even when this year’s budget is programme leaning, it offers no solution to address the rampant unemployment, serious agriculture revitalization, corruption and other pressing issues.
The financial year budget amounted to over 52 trillion Uganda Shillings and of this, 27 trillion was to come from URA’s Tax, 2 trillion from Non-tax revenue and 287 billion from Local revenue.
These developments were reached at on Tuesday July/4th/2023 during a national dialogue to discuss the FY2023/24 Budget organized by Caritas Uganda in partnership with Uganda Farmer’s Common Voice Platform (UFCVP) at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala under the theme, “National Budget in Uganda: Charting Uganda’s path to economic growth and development.” With an objective of,
“Providing a platform for discussion and analyzing the recently passed budget and its implications for Uganda’s economic growth and development while fostering actionable recommendations to mprovide the next planning cycle.”