The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has revealed that legislators in the new Parliament may not get money for new cars as early as it was expected.
Although It’s a norm that whenever a new parliament kicks off business, MPs must get new vehicles or are given money to procure the cars by themselves, this time around members may have to wait a bit longer.
In the 10th Parliament, the government spent Shs110 bn on the purchase of vehicles for MPs. Each of the 427 MPs received Shs20 million that is according to the budget that was outlined by the Parliamentary Commission.
Since the 11th Parliament is going to be larger than the previous one with over 500 plus members, the government is to spend more.
According to the National Budget Framework Paper for 2021/22budget, Parliament requires 165bn to buy cars for members including the Speaker and the deputy.
However, according to reports from the Ministry of Finance, the country’s coffers are almost empty given the high expense the country has incurred in combating the covid-19 pandemic and the increasing debt burdens that are overdue.
Because of the covid-19 effect, in the budget Framework, only major priorities will be funded and MPs vehicles have not been listed on government’s priorities. In the document seen by this website which was tabled before the budget committee for scrutiny, 2021/22 Financial Year’s task is to mount over Shs5trillion that will foot the only core priorities in the country today.
The core unfunded priorities include; Salaries, pension and gratuity (Shs322bn) Capitalization of the Uganda National Oil Company which will consume over Shs4439.3bn, recurring supplementary Shs388bn and Shs200bn will be on compensation for cattle in Acholi, Teso and Lango.
Kenneth Mugambe the Director for Budget from the Ministry of Finance while speaking journalist at the beginning of this week also proved that as of now, the government may not be ready to fund vehicles for MPs.
“Currently the ministry is reviewing the projects and only core ones will be funded. Because of the resource envelope, we have agreed to review the projects and only fund those that are critical,” he said.
Minister for Finance Matia Kasaija also on Monday said that due to the funding pressure 2021/22 is entirely based on sustaining economic recovery from Covid-19 impacts. He, however, noted the money for MPs’ cars is not available as of now.
The size of the 11th Parliament has also stretched national budget beyond what the 10th Parliament has approved. Uganda is now among the few countries in Africa with the biggest Parliament.
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