Museveni Now Signs Appropriation Bill 2024 After Successful Veto Prevail
In a decisive victory for President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, signed into law, the Appropriation Bill, 2024, after a standoff between the executive and the legislative arms of Government over what the executive termed as “tempering with the budget” allocations.
In a short statement from the Presidential Press Unit last night, it was revealed, “…the president has signed the Appropriation Bill, 2024 (reconsidered) into law. The president assented to the bill today, Thursday, 4th July 2024.”
During the budgeting process for the fiscal year, 2024/25, MPs on the budget committee reallocated Shs750bn of the Shs72.1 trillion that was approved by the Committee of Supply of the whole house, when the budget was approved by Parliament on June 16, 2024.
However, the president who seems to have worked under the advice of the Government technocrats, the president rejected what he called “corruption” and insisted that funds cut by parliament from some sectors he considers so critical had to be reinstated for him to assent to the Appropriation Bill.
After an intense “fight against corruption in parliament’s budget committee”, Parliament relented, restoring the funds to the President’s preferred areas, for the bill to suit his assent, hardly two days after reconsideration of the unprecedented budget in terms of amount by the same parliament that passed the original one.
The move marks a significant win for the President, who had been unwavering in his pursuit to realign the budget in his priority areas.
With the reinstated funds, the Ministry of Finance got Shs60bn to undertake research aimed at informing government policy and supporting evidence-based decision-making on budget performance, capitalization of Uganda Development Bank, and Agricultural credit support.
Another Shs425bn was earmarked to cater for treasury operations including, meeting contractual obligations for nationally acquired loans, meeting government obligations under the share subscription agreement in servicing ROKO Bills of exchange and payment of EFT bank charges to BoU, among others, and then meeting interest on treasury bonds.
Ministry of Energy got Shs50bn to cater for ongoing contractual obligations for Liquefied Petroleum Gas promotional kits service providers, capacity payments for the operations of the Namanve Thermal Power plant for energy security, and to kick-start works on the major 7 construction lots.
Ministry of Water and Environment got Shs14bn to meet the Government’s obligation on counter-funding for World Bank financing of various Urban water supply and sanitation in the towns of Busia, Mbale and surrounding towns, Butaleja, Busolwe-Budaka, Kadama Tirinyi, Kibuku, Namungalwe Kaliro, Namasale, Koboko, Rukungiri, Kyegegwa-Mpara-Ruyonza, Kumi, among others.
The money will also be used to make interventions for increasing access to safe and clean water through a source per village in rural areas, including the construction and rehabilitation of point water sources in the communities, expansion of dilapidated piped water supply system, motorizing and upgrading of high yield boreholes with solar-powered systems.
Many other Government agencies, benefited from the fund reinstatement of the budget cuts.