Man Jose Kayima
The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Ramathan Ggoobi has dismissed reports that the Ugandan government is broke and unable to meet its financial obligations.
The substantial reduction in budget releases for the first quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year has paralysed the delivery of government services across the country.
Several accounting officers in various ministries, departments, and government agencies, including local governments, have reporting low funds, with some unable to pay salaries.
Mr Ggoobi, who is also the Permanent Secretary, says that government revenue resources are performing well.
“For the first two months of the year (July & August) URA collected a surplus. So we don’t have any shortage in revenue so far, and it’s also projecting good performance this last month of the quarter,” he said while appearing on UBC TV.
“Revenue is performing well. This last month we had a surplus of about 53 billion, over and above the target,” he added.
He also assured all public servants that they will receive their salary arrears by end of October.
“Every public officer will be able to get their salaries by October. It’s not that there isn’t enough money, no! It’s because there were changes to be made in the payroll which required a lot of information,” he said.
“There were adjustments that had to be made on the payroll and that took sometime for officers to get done. This work has been ongoing and it’s going to be finalized to his month,” he added.
In July, the Ministry of Finance released Shs4.7 trillion of the projected Shs8.1 trillion, but did not explain where the rest of the money was channelled.
The development budget was the most affected with only Shs596b released out of the expected Shs2.38 trillion.
Non-wage budget for the same period was cut by 48 percent from the expected Shs3.42 trillion to Shs1.81 trillion.
Non-wage funds, among others, bankroll operational costs such as allowances for civil servants, fuel for field visits, workshops and capacity building.
The budget cuts have had devastating effects on the ground, according to officials in-charge of budget administration and accountability.
