Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Finance has released a total of Shs5.81 trillion for Quarter Two expenditures, in addition to Shs5.6 trillion which was released in the First quarter, bringing the total funds released to-date to Shs. 12.17 trillion.
The 12.17 trillion released represents 53% of the approved Government of Uganda Budget excluding External Financing, Appropriation in Aid (AIA) and Public Debt.
According to the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PS/ST), Ramathan Ggoobi, Wages, will take 1.46 trillion, non-wage will take 2.3 trillion, GOU Development will take 1.9 trillion and arrears will take 80 billion.
Ggoobi said that government prioritized expenditure in Health, and Social Protection, Agriculture and Industry, Government and URA as well as Judiciary and Legislation.
He said that health institutions and Social Protection were allocated Shs 294.6 billion, the funding mainly will cater for National Medical Stores (Shs 120.7 billion) including essential medicines, Ministry of Health (Shs.50.2 billion), Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (Shs. 42.4) billion including SAGE (Shs.32.7 billion) and Referral Hospitals (Shs.34.8 billion).
Agriculture and Industry was allocated Shs. 184.7 billion and the funding mainly will cater for Ministry of Agriculture (Shs.36.4 billion) Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Shs. 35.6 billion), NAADs (Shs 31.4 billion) Uganda Coffee Development Authority (Shs 22.8 billion) NARO (Shs. 22.1 billion), and NAGRIC (Shs 19.8 billion).
Governance, Revenue Collection was allocated Shs 437.1 billion and the funding is mainly to cater for, Ministry of Finance (Shs 254.9 billion) including the funding for support to SMEs and capitalization of UDB, Uganda Revenue Authority (Shs. 82.1 billion), National Citizenship and Immigration Control (Shs 28.9 billion).
The Judiciary, Legislature, Electoral Commission, Missions abroad have been allocated Shs. 256.8 billion, and the funding is mainly to cater for Parliament (Shs. 140 billion), Judiciary (Shs. 74 billion), and Electoral Commission (Shs. 37.4 billion).
Ggoobi said that Under infrastructure, the key releases were made to UNRA (Shs.303 billion), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (Shs.68.1 billion), Ministry of Works and Transport (Shs. 43 billion) and Ministry of Water and Environment (Shs. 170 billion) to cater for cater for accumulated certificates.
The PS/ST urged all Accounting Officers to ensure that they pay wages, salaries, pensions and gratuity by the 28th of every month.
“Accounting Officers must prioritize payment of service providers on time and avoid accumulation of arrears, there should be a display of the payrolls for salaries and monthly pension on Government institutions’ notice boards every month, Accounting Officers must ensure timely submission of performance reports and accountability,”Ggoobi said.
He said that the clearance of domestic arrears must be prioritized during this quarter, “the finance remains committed to the timely release of funds,” Ggoobi said.
Ggoobi revealed that the economy grew by 3.4 percent during FY 2020/21 compared to the growth of 3.0 in FY 2019/20.
He said that the size of the economy in nominal terms increased to Ush 147 trilion in FY 2020/21 from Shs 139 Trilion in FY 2019/20.
“Performance so far, this financial year indicates that the economy has continued on its recovery path following the partial reopening of the economy as shown by high frequency indicators of economic activity,” Ggoobi said.