The opposition legislators on the Budget Committee of Parliament have identified about Ugx454 billion that they think would be wasteful expenditure by the President.
They cited the Ugx350 million provided for buying clothes, which they feel is a wasteful expenditure as the President would spend Shs1 million per day on clothes.
“Our president is not a star from Hollywood requiring to change wardrobe every day. He is the president of a poor country. Why buy him clothes worth Shs350 million every year? What happened to the clothes that we bought last year?” minority report authored by opposition MPs sitting on the Budget Committee.
They also questioned the provision of Shs600 million for furniture in the State House, which is the same amount that was appropriated in the current financial year.
MP Ibrahim Ssemujju (Kira Municipality) also decried the ‘bloated’ budget for the Presidency and State House. In the proposed budget, the Office of the President has been allocated Shs239bn.
On Wednesday, Parliament failed to approve the Financial Year 2023–2024 Budget after several glitches in the presentation of the final draft budget report, which had twice been rescheduled by House Speaker Anita Among.
Speaker Among informed lawmakers that part of the problem was because of mercenaries that had severally attempted to influence the tweaking of budgetary allocations for government ministries, departments, and agencies.
The committee was thereafter accorded time to complete its report and process a second corrigenda [item to be corrected] from the State Minister for Finance (General Duties), Mr. Henry Musasizi, who at the last minute tabled a reconsideration of the budget from possibly Shs 51 trillion to Shs 52 trillion.
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