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THIS WEEK: CSO calls for rejection of supplementary budget
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In a statement released on Mar. 02, a Civil Society Organization – CSBAG (Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group) asked parliament to reject unnecessary supplementary budget requests by the government.
The organization calls for the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act 2015 to be reviewed and the clause that allows for flexibility allowing supplementary budgets to sail through without parliamentary approval to be removed.
In its current form, the Act under sections 22 and 20, allows enough flexibility for government to spend money without asking for supplementary budgets.
“Parliament should throw out some of these supplementary budgets by the government so that they are considered as losses,” Julius Mukunda, the executive Director CSBAG said.
The CSOs noted that if the Public finance Act 2015, which empowers government to take supplementary budgets before prior approval by parliament, is reviewed, parliament will be able to lock out any uncalled for supplementary expenditures.
The Public Finance Management Act regulations, specify that the supplementary budgets should be unforeseeable and unavoidable but CSOs say this has created laxity among government officials who make inadequate planning since they know they will get supplementary resources approved by parliament easily.
