UGANDA PUBLIC FUNDS CONTROL

30TH-10-2013
In efforts to improve accountability and transparency in government agencies as and ministries, government has adopted a number of reforms and policies to that effect. Quarterly reports for government releases are now made public to help ensure effective usage of the funds for the intended purposes. Therefore government has released 5.72 trillion Uganda shillings for this quarter equivalent to 47% of the approved national budget for this financial year.

The 5.07 trillion shillings is a quarterly release equivalent to 47% of the government’s approved budget for this financial year. This excludes non-resource taxes and external financing and serves for the quarter that begun in July to December this year. This is to cover plans in the different ministries agencies, referral hospitals, missions abroad, total center votes and local governments. The funding will further be released in form of capitation grants to schools in line with the school term calendar and enhancement of the requested teacher’s salaries.

To increase budget transparency and ensure appropriate budget expenditure, the ministry will require accounting officers in the different ministries, departments and agencies to submit progress and accountability reports by the 15^th day of every month.

There is going to be a single treasury single account for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies with an aim to obtain an aggregate position of government cash balances for efficient control and motoring of public funds. Under this system, funds will be availed within the approved cash limits for only those items for which payment is approved by the accounting officer. Unspent balances will be returned back to the account and availed for the next working day.

These initiatives follow the recent mismanagement of public funds by government officials. Most of the efforts are to strengthen internal controls on public fund management