The recommendation is carried in a report presented before Parliament’s Budget Committee by Health Committee Chairperson Dr Charles Ayume. The proposed budget for the Health Sector presented in the National Budget Framework Paper for the financial year 2022/2023 is 2.2 trillion Shillings.
The cuts affected the Office of the President (1.9 billion), State House (8 billion), Office of the Prime Minister (4.31 billion), Ministry of Defence (5.14 billion), Ministry of Finance (25.9 billion), Office of the Auditor General (3.9 billion), Makerere University (4.3 billion) Uganda Revenue Authority (8.8 billion), National Curriculum Development Centre (12.8 billion), Missions Abroad (11.6 billion) and others.
The Defense and Veterans Affairs State Minister, Sam Engola also said they have enough money for the promoted officers and will not require additional funding.
According to the Education Sector Policy Statement for the coming financial year 2018/2019, the budget is proposed to slightly increase from the current 2.5 trillion to 2.6 trillion Shillings. Despite the slight increase in the total budget, different budget line items within the sector are affected by budget cuts totalling to 7.8 billion Shillings.
Plans by the Ministry of Education to recruit 2000 science teachers may fall flat as the proposal is not catered for in the 2018/2019 financial year. The ministry had requested for 18 billion for the recruitment exercise in a phased manner but the funds have not been provided in the proposed 2018/2019 financial year budget. Fredrick Mutyama, the Commissioner Education Planning and Analysis in the Ministry of Education says the available budget is to be mainly spent on wages making it hard for them to undertake most of the development activities.
According to the Ministry of Education and Sports ministerial policy statement, there is a funding shortfall of 18 billion Shillings needed for the next cohort of students under the Students Loan Scheme. This is in addition to recruitment of 2,000 science teachers for secondary schools that also requires 18 billion Shillings, construction of 100 primary schools costed at 49.1 billion and 20 secondary schools in sub-counties without any government-aided secondary school costed at 9.4 billion Shillings.
The Inspector General of Police has asked sub county and district councils to allocate funds in their budgets to fuel of Police vehicles during operations. The police budget was reduced from Shillings 612 billion shillings in 2014/15 to Shillings 516 billion in the current Financial Year and that in the 2017/18, the budget will be cut further to Shillings 506 billion.
But staff recruitment in public universities is listed among unfunded priorities for the year, according to the Budget Framework Paper, currently under scrutiny by parliament.
However, the Health Budget Committee Chairperson, Michael Bukenya, says the proposed budget cut in such a critical sector is uncalled for, saying it is likely to affect ordinary Ugandans.
Patrick Masinde, the Pharmacist Iganga Hospital, says in the 2015/2016 financial year, their budget for drugs and medical supplies was Shillings 67 million for every two months.
Benjamin Makanga, the Nakaseke District Works and Technical Service Secretary, says they couldnt work on most of the roads ahead of the rain season because budget cuts. He explains that they only received Shillings 24 million out of the Shillings 159 million they expected from the Finance, Planning and Economics Development Ministry in the last quarter.
The S&P statement reads, “We now forecast a higher fiscal deficit of 6.9% in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, partly due to expenditure on a hydropower project that was not in the original budget.\"
The committee observes that in future all demands on the budget should be introduced early in the budget process to enable favourable competition among the activities. It adds that the scope for pay review lies in finding new sources to fund pay raise across all categories of deserving public servants.
Earlier on Samuel Wanyaka, the director Budget office in parliament informed the committee that executing any budget cuts would affect all budgets, already endorsed by parliament.
The budget cut is likely to impact heavily on the implementation of key projects that are meant to improve the livelihood of hundreds of poverty-stricken Ugandans.
