By Our Reporters
PSST Keith Muhakanizi today Friday called journalists to announce the release of over Shs4trn to facilitate service delivery and generally government work for the 2nd quarter of the financial year 2018/19 (October-December). Muhakanizi always does this act of scrutiny to increase transparency and empower the public with enough information to be able to powerfully demand for services in government facilities. It’s also an opportunity for unpaid service providers to be alerted that money has come and go to the accounting officers to demand for their payment. But during question time, journalists who always insist that Muhakanizi’s mere quarterly release doesn’t make news, insisted on asking him to comment on what they considered to be topical things in the news. This time round the bad boys were Steven Otage and Kenneth Anderson Lukwago who respectively work with Daily Monitor and Radio One. Otage, whose point was corroborated and reinforced by Lukwago, asked Muhakanizi for his views about the money the President and State House are extravagantly investing in the ghetto groups (the urban poor) to politically neutralize Kyaddondo East MP Bobi Wine Kyagulanyi Sentamu and his People Power Movement. The two insisted this was improper especially that such arbitrary expenditures and interventions were possibly never captured or incorporated in the budgeting process. Muhakanizi, who seemed clearly discomforted with such questions, refused to give any answer and advised the inquisitive scribes to look for the President and his State House Comptroller Lucy Nakyobe and put such hard questions to them. He explained that he has nothing to do with such decisions because State House has its own vote and an accounting officer who is directly answerable to Parliament-and as such it’s not incumbent upon him to speak on her behalf. He accused reporters of cowardice wondering why, having feared Nakyobe, they opt to come to the Finance Ministry press conference to ask their questions to a wrong person. Muhakanizi said at best such questions can be directed to his boss Matia Kasaijja who is the political leader at Finance. This isn’t the first the otherwise thick-skinned Muhakanizi is fearfully avoiding to comment on issues that seem politically very controversial in the news. Sometime back, as he released information regarding the previous quarterly releases, he was asked to comment about the prudence of the President’s directive to buy escort vehicles for the MPs. He still politely declined saying that wasn’t his matter to discuss since he is just a technocrat hired to implement directives from the political leaders.
CEOS SHARING THE 4TRN;
The following is how Muhakanizi’s over Shs4.3trn is being shared out. The PSST announced that this accounts for 29.3% of the total budget for the FY and the recipients are as follows: slightly over Shs1trn will go for wages and salaries for the next three months; Shs145bn for pension and gratuity payments; Shs21.7bn for gratuity/pension arrears; Shs648bn to Allen Kagina’s UNRA; Shs153bn for Eng Micheal Odongo’s Uganda Road Fund to finance road maintenance projects in the districts and Shs95bn for Moses Kamabare’s National Medical Stores to facilitate procurement of essential medicines for government facilities. Pius Bigirimana’s Gender Ministry has been availed with Shs10bn for the continued implementation of the SAGE project under which the elderly get monthly upkeep in the respective districts through PostBank Uganda. Shs222bn is available for the domestic arrears implying numerous government MDAs creditors will have reason to smile for the next three months. The Public Universities will get their release for 3rd quarter in January to enable them to smoothly open for their 2nd semester. Yet that isn’t all. To the district local governments, Keith Muhakanizi has released Shs777.8bn to cater for wages (Shs505bn), non-wage (Shs52.9bn), development expenditure (Shs149.1bn), pension requirements (Shs27.8bn0, gratuity obligations (Shs21.1bn0, salary arrears (Shs4.9bn) and Shs16.7bn for pension and gratuity arrears. The PSST called on government salaried employees to rise up and fight any accounting officer who fails to pay them not later than 28th of every month because the money is always released on time. Service providers too must be promptly paid as the PSST won’t tolerate avoidable accumulation of arrears. Proof of monthly payment of salary and wages must be displayed on the workplace notice boards to promote transparency and accountability. All pending domestic arrears must be paid by the relevant MDAs as a matter of priority since the required monies have been provided. Muhakanizi assured Ugandans of his readiness to continue the culture of timely release of quarterly funds to the beneficiary MDAs so that accounting officers have no excuse for their failure to adequately finance service delivery. For comments, call/text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
