By Spy Uganda
The Parliament of Uganda has controversially approved another supplementary budget of Shs33Bn, shortly after passing the contentious Shs284Bn budget which was meant to help government in the fight against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
TheSpy Uganda has learnt that the whooping Shs33Bn is to be used for among others, rehabilitation and maintenance of city roads under the watchful eyes of KCCA, which are dilapidated and full of potholes.
We have since learnt that the supplementary budget request is contained in recommendations made by the Budget committee and presented before the plenary on Tuesday by the Committee’s Chairman Amos Lugoloobi, the Member of Parliament for Ntenjeru North Constituency.
During his presentation to Parliament, Lugoloobi said that Shs10Bn will be for maintenance of KCCA roads and those that have been earmarked include Upper Kololo Terrace, Queen’s way, Wilson Road, Sikh Road, Channel Street, Johnson Road, Lubiri Ring Road and Sir Apollo Kagwa road.
Lugolobi also revealed that Shs10Bn has also been allocated to the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) for purchase of machinery to run the training Institute in Namanve, as one of the measures of boosting the manufacture of several products in Uganda, so as to reduce on the amount of imported products into the country.
It should be noted that the UIRI facility was last year established by the government to among others; enhance Industrial skills by providing platforms for hands-on training and apprenticeship; engaging in modern methods of machining and manufacturing of metallic parts, accessories and implements; and, creating capacity for development of indigenous technologies and reduce technology import bill and enhance the production of several commodities that are currently being imported.
We have learnt that part from the Shs10Bn mentioned above, another Shs9Bn of the approved money is for upgrading of Health Center IIs to Health Centre III status and construction of Seed Secondary Schools in some parts of the country under the Ministry of Local Government. As a result of this development, the Ministry of Health got Shs776m additional funding, while the Ministry of Finance received Shs1.09Bn for payment of five months’ salaries for staff of the Privatisation Unit which were never captured in the 2019/20 budget.
However, the development comes at a time when many Ugandans are asking questions about the Shs284Bn COVDI-19 supplementary budget which was passed early this month, accountability for which is yet to be availed to Parliament.
