By Hanning Mbabazi
Kampala: The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has urged government institutions to improve on service delivery and quickening services following the tardy manner in which the 2019/2020 budget was passed.
Kadaga made these remarks on Thursday, 13 June 2019 while addressing the state prior to the budget reading at the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre. She noted that some ministries failed to beat deadline for submitting their policy statements which was March 15th as stipulated in the Public Finance Management Act, 2015. “Majority of them (policy statements) were submitted on 19 April and nine ministries had to be named because of non-compliance. This caused us to sit again to handle the addendum. This is very untidy and I hope that the Minister of Finance will not repeat it in the next financial year,” Kadaga said.
She, however, said that the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development complied with the provision of the constitution and the Public Finance Management Act by presenting the budget within the stipulated time frame. “I would therefore, request the Minister on behalf of the President to present to Parliament and to the nation the highlights of the approved budget for financial year 2019/2020,” Kadaga stated. She noted that Parliament will carry out the oversight and advise whether in its assessment the pronouncements made in the State of the Nation Address are in tandem with the approved budget or not. During the budget speech, the President causes to be presented to Parliament the approved budget for a respective financial year as provided for under Article 155(1) of the Constitution.
