Do better on next budget, Kadaga tells government

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has cautioned government to improve on how the next budget is processed following the tardy manner in which the 2019/2020 budget was passed.

Kadaga was making her Communication from the Chair prior to the presentation of the budget speech on Thursday, 13 June 2019 at the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre.

The Speaker said that ministries had failed to beat the deadline of submitting their policy statements by 15 March as stipulated in the Public Finance Management Act, 2015.

“Majority of them (policy statements) were submitted on 19 April and nine ministries had to be named because of non-compliance,” said Kadaga.

She added that an addendum to the budget was presented to Parliament after the Appropriation Bill had been sent to the Budget Committee.

“This caused us to sit again to handle the addendum. This is very untidy and I hope that the Minister of Finance will not repeat it in the next financial year,” Kadaga said.

She, however, said that the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development complied with the provision of the constitution and the Public Finance Management Act by presenting the budget within the stipulated timeframe.

“I would therefore, request the Minister on behalf of the President to present to Parliament and to the nation the highlights of the approved budget for financial year 2019/2020,” Kadaga stated.

She noted that Parliament will carry out the oversight and advise whether in its assessment the pronouncements made in the State of the Nation Address are in tandem with the approved budget.

During the budget speech, the President causes to be presented to Parliament the approved budget for a respective financial year as provided for under Article 155(1) of the Constitution.