The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Keith Muhakanizi has said repetitive supplementary expenditures and creation of new administrative units is why Uganda has had deficit Budgets over the past years.
Muhakanizi, who was appearing before the Parliament’s Finance Committee on Thursday, said Uganda is deep in deficit Budgets over the time because top government officials have failed to take to his advice on the management of the economy.
Muhakanizi, as a secretary of the Treasury had been summoned to give account for the Budget deficits and criteria used to pay off people perform public statutory duties.
While appearing before the committee, the Budadiri West Member of Parliament Nandala Mafabi asked him to explain to the legislators the criteria they used to pay out mandamus payments.
Muhakanizi explained that Ministers have always been mad at him whenever he disagreed with them on the matters of increasing wages and creation of new districts yet the country’s source of revenues don’t increase.
“When I speak the truth, Ministers get angry. When you increase wages, that is the Cabinet and President, remember these are powerful people when you create these permanent structures, like cities and districts. We can’t cry over something you have created. Such developments are always created without my knowledge. How can I manage when powerful people aren’t respecting my advice?” he asked.
He also said that a lot of supplementary expenditures have come out whose accountability can not be questioned since they come from above and Parliament passes them.
He also blamed the Ministry of Justice for ignoring his advice before the decentralised their system of village courts because the treasury had no money to manage the running of the system at that time.
“Our payment system in the Ministry of Justice was working very well but when they decided to have the system decentralised I had the capacity of negotiations but they ignored me. For the matter Ministry of Finance had to save Shs5bn,” he explained.
Muhakanizi added that the decentralisation in the Ministry of Justice is the crisis which has led other department to lag.
“When you see these bad roads in Kampala, I suspect that KCCA doesn’t have money because all the money went to court awards. It is possible they aren’t working on any problem anymore. Having disregarded my advice, stop crying,” said Muhakanizi.
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
