Ugandan President travels on Credit after state house exhausts budget allocation
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni recent travels have been financed on credit as State House exhausts funds allocated in the financial year ending June 2017, reports the Observer.
President Museveni’s credit is at 4.4 billion Ugandan Shillings (approximately 1,210,968 USD) and until a supplementary budget of 6,357,582 USD (USHs 23.1bn) has been approved by the parliament, the President’s moves are restrained.
“We are supposed to facilitate the president at all times, come rain, come shine; so, we still have to have some money to see us through that period when books have closed as we wait for new books of the coming financial year [2017/18] to open,” State House comptroller Lucy Nakyobe told the committee.
The supplementary budget is to sustain the President for the 40 days to the end of the 2016/17 financial year, when a new budget is read and monies allocated.
“The president has been at the forefront of mobilization for transformation and poverty alleviation, and he has been moving throughout the whole country, and when he moves, we spend a lot of money through facilitating staff, buying fuel, hosting delegations,” said Nakyobe.
Nakyobe further added that, some of the money had gone to unforeseen activities, including a donation to a fruit factory proprietor in Mbarara, the Makerere University visitation committee, and Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, among others.
“We planned for 25 visits abroad but we have already done 30, consuming five extra visits out of our budget. [Planned] state visits were 15, but we have done 17,” she added.
President Museveni typically moves a lot across the country, attending events of supporters, campaigning for NRM candidates or mobilizing ordinary people to engage in economic activity.
Apart from the president’s travels, the supplementary budget is supposed to take care of, among other things, utilities such as telecommunications, electricity and water; classified expenditure, Makerere University visitation committee and insurance for the presidential helicopter and jet.
In the financial year ending June 30, the total State House budget is Shs 257.29bn (70,811,354USD), up from Shs 166bn (45,686,520 USD) the previous year. The 2016-2017 budget, State House requested and received a supplementary budget of Shs 49.7bn (13,678,434 USD) in April 2016, about two months to the closure of 2015/16 financial year on grounds that the presidential elections had exhausted their budget.
