State House will spend up to Shs429 billion if Parliament approves the proposed budget for the Financial Year 2022/2023.
This represents Shs29 billion increment from the Financial Year 2021/2022. In the financial year ending June 30, the State House had an approved budget of Shs410 billion.
Parliament is expected to scrutinize the figures and pass the budget before the end of April.
The report of the committee on presidential affairs on the ministerial policy statements and budget estimates for the presidency, Kampala Capital City Authority, and Office of the Prime Minister for Fiscal year 2022/2023, indicates that this is largely on account of substantial increment in proposed allocation to domestic development expenditure category.
“In the Fiscal Year 2022/2023, the total proposed allocation to the State House is Shs429.4 billion, reflecting an increment of 4.7 percent against the FY2021/2022 approved budget,” the report says.
In the FY 2021/22, Shs410.236b was appropriated to State House, of which wage bill stood at Shs18.9 billion, non-wage recurrent Shs379.025b, while domestic development category stood at Shs12.3 billion
However, the State House also had supplementary budget request, and by the end of the third quarter release in March, the total releases amounted to Shs460.592 billion, while the actual expenditure amounted to Shs379.255 b.
According to the report, the released funds performed at 112.3 percent against the approved budget and the committee attributed this to the supplementary budget on emerging issues of classified nature which necessitated Shs100 billion.
Research and development of the Covid-19 vaccine also took Shs6.622 billion; while actual expenditure registered a performance of 82.3 percent absorption rate.
How the money will be spent
According to the report, of the Shs429 billion, State House plans to spend Shs83.033b to facilitate payment of pending presidential donations, Shs16.4b for poverty alleviation under the model villages, while Shs39.4b will be for renovation and retooling of the State House and state lodges.
It is not clear what the rest of the money will be spent on.
The report says only Shs53.033b has provided for presidential donations.
The committee says the unfulfilled presidential pledges were among the key budget execution challenges to State House because of the demand.
“The committee recommends that Shs30 billion be provided to State House to facilitate the fulfilment of the presidential donations,” the report recommends.
The committee report states that the State House introduced 27 model villages under the poverty alleviation initiative distributed throughout the four regions of the country eight model villages are located in central and eastern Uganda while western Uganda has seven with the north having four villages.
The report says for the last financial year, the model villages were operating on a budget of Shs2 billion, yet it would take Shs600 million to operate each model village, bringing the actual required amount to Shs16 billion.
The committee on presidential affairs committee says during the on-spot assessment of Poverty Alleviation Initiatives, the committee noted with serious concern the human resource structural gaps affecting the operations of the model villages.
“Whereas the programme is implemented in many districts, there were no staff to coordinate Model Villages Initiatives at district. Majority of the staff work on voluntary basis. Efforts to establish the coordination structure at the grassroots have remained weak. Without strong coordination, the sustainability of the programme cannot be guaranteed,” the report says.
The committee in its report recommended that government must provide Shs14 billion to enable State House effectively support the 27 model villages.
“State House must increase support to the Poverty Alleviation Department through recruitment of full time and competent staff were the projects are to ensure project/programme sustainability,” the report says.
Renovations
The report says while State House requires up to Shs39.4 billion for maintaining and renovating the State House at Entebbe and the Nakasero state lodge and other 23 state lodges up country, only Shs12.3 billion has been provided.
