MPs Reconvene To Reconsider Budget After President’s Surprise Veto

Lawmakers are returning from recess to the Parliamentary chamber today to revisit the national budget for fiscal year, 2024/2025, following a surprise veto by President Museveni that has sparked tension between the executive and legislative arms of Government.

President’s unprecedented protest on an approved budget by Parliament, which is the only legally mandated arm of the government with appropriation powers, has raised questions on government’s ability to effect its operations without a valid Appropriation Act, 2024.

Ordinarily, the fiscal year would have commenced yesterday on July 1, 2024, which has put MPs under pressure to find a solution that meets the president’s unclear demands without disrupting critical public services.

“Parliament passed the Appropriation Bill 2024, on May 16, however, the president has returned the Bill to parliament for reconsideration in accordance with Article 91 (3) (b) and (c) of the constitution,” Adolf Mwesigye, the clerk to Parliament wrote to MPs on June 27, 2024.

He therefore, went on to “inform you that there will be a plenary sitting of Parliament on Tuesday, [today] at 2:00 pm to reconsider the Appropriation Bill.”

It should be recalled that Speaker Anita Among adjourned the Parliament to July 23, 2024, sighting a “lack of business” for parliament to transect and the desire to enable MPs to “bond with the electorates.”

Although the president’s refusal to assent to the Appropriation Bill, 2024 is not stated, the executive-legislature standoff is said to be caused by Parliament’s reallocation of Shs750bn without seeking the Executive’s tacit approval.

Before its approval by the whole house on May 15, the MPs on various parliamentary committees including the budget committee, invoked their powers to change the money from what they deemed non-priorities to priority areas, which had not been funded by the Government.

It is noteworthy, that when MPs turned up to approve the budget for the fiscal year 2024/2025, they were shocked with a corrigenda amounting to Shs14.050 trillion presented by the Minister of Finance.

The ‘unscrutinized’ corrigenda considerably increased the total budget to Shs72.136 trillion up from original budget estimates of Shs58.34 trillion that were fully processed by sectoral committees of parliament during the lengthy budget process.

To alleviate fears, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka said that there is no cause for worry as “Article 154 of the Constitution gives the president a leeway to order for the expenditure of the budget without the Appropriation Act.”

To Governance experts, President Museveni’s unprecedented refusal to assent to the Appropriation Bill, 2024, “is one of the weapons he has chosen to apply in his efforts to weaken and turn Parliament into a mere rubber stamp entity for all the things he wants.”

The constitution prescribes that the President shall assent to the Appropriation Bill within 30 days after receiving it.

In case, he does not sign it into law, he has the freedom to return it to parliament for reconsideration, after which, the speaker of parliament refers it to a suitable committee for examination, reports to parliament again, and passes then resends it to the president for signing.

When the President refuses to sign the contested bill twice, it becomes a law without his signature.