The Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) has asked parliament to use the proposed amendments in the Public Finance Management Act 2015 moved by Butambala legislator Muwanga Kivumbi to reduce the powers of the minister of finance on procurement of loans to reduce fiscal abuse exhibited in the borrowing of public funds.
During a consultative meeting organized at parliament over the proposed Public Finance Management amendment bill 2023, Peter Watuwa a Researcher with ACODE submitted that the minister of finance has too much power in the negotiation of loans and it must be trimmed to curb fiscal indiscipline.
This comes after the opposition attempted to halt the approval of the Shs3.5Trn Supplementary budget where the Ministry of Finance indicated that Shs3.1Trn meant to finance the supplementary estimates was going to be borrowed from local commercial banks, something the Opposition argued was a violation of rules and PFMA.
Kivumbi noted that the objective of amending the Public Finance Management Act 2015 is geared towards prescribing the conditions for approving supplementary estimates by Parliament and harmonizing provisions related to supplementary estimates.
The experts also welcomed the proposal to protect the contingency fund from being used to fund the supplementary budget saying it must be reserved for natural disasters alone. They called for replenishment of the contingency fund and its increment from the current 0.5% of the total budget
Watuwa also raised concerns over the government’s high appetite for supplementary budgets with a study showing that for the last five financial years, in nominal amounts, the total supplementary expenditure approved by Parliament has been increasing up to 260%.
