President Museveni busts budget corruption syndicate

Top Finance ministry technocrats could soon be in trouble after President Museveni revealed that he has evidence pinning them of colluding with accounting officers and parliamentarians to pilfer public resources through fictitious allocations in the national budget.

Delivering the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala yesterday, Mr Museveni said “I have been hearing stories that there is a racket from … [the] Ministry of Finance, they are bringing accounting officers of ministries to come to Parliament working with some people, to provide certain funds, provided they [officials] take a share”.

“I didn’t believe it [at first], but now I have proof. So, therefore, really the corrupt are like foreigners [because] some of these foreigners do not know Uganda,” he said, “I am very sorry for them because they do not know what they are doing. I pity those people who support them [because] they don’t know how strong we are.”

The revelations lift the lid off years of investigations by intelligence agencies, including the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), which in dossiers prepared for the President reported alleged clandestine practice of some lawmakers taking money in exchange for heftier budget allocations to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Sources close to the inquiries in earlier briefings to this newspaper said that implicated lawmakers call the extortion game “kicking the ball to the wall”, euphemism for kickback likened to a bounce of a ball to the kicker if booted against a barrier.

Accounting officers – permanent secretaries or under-secretaries, chief executive officers and chief administrative officers – who “know how to kick the ball” receive generous budgetary allocations to their entities and muted questioning when before House accountability committees, the source said.

This alleged budget corruption, according to another source, is the reason the President asked Members of Parliament to stop altering the budget and only make recommendations to the budget, which he said was his.

Some lawmakers upset over the comments pushed back, arguing that their role in the budget process was more than ceremonial.

Despite receiving the dossiers years ago, President Museveni reserved any public comments on the findings, and reportedly commissioned counter-intelligence to verify the claims.

State House sources said it is the latter findings, which corroborated the initial account, which prompted the disclosure by the head of state at yesterday’s SONA.

Uganda’s budget has been increasing exponentially, with substantial last-minute additions through corrigenda or supplementary allocations which MPs question but approve.

For instance, Parliament despite complaining that Finance ministry ambushed it at the eleventh hour with a revised budget went ahead and approved Shs72 trillion for the next Financial Year, which starts on July 1, up from the Shs52 trillion for the ending Financial Year.

The Executive and Legislature have repeatedly crossed swords over the national budget. The President accuses lawmakers of applying public money to wasteful consumptive expenditures such as travel and workshops while MPs say the Executive, particularly State House, takes a disproportionate share of the national cake mainly through supplementary requests at the expense of service delivery to the masses.

Mr Henry Musasizi, the State minister for Finance (General Duties), in a rejoinder last evening agreed with the President, his appointing authority, that something was amiss with the work methods of technocrats at Finance.

“We have been sitting in Cabinet [to] approve a budget, harmonise with other arms of government and now you hear an accounting officer going to Parliament asking for more money which is not what we agreed upon [and] I think that is the genesis of the whole matter,” he said in reference to the alleged budget corruption.

He added: “I am happy that [the] President has today come out strongly to condemn this practice and informed us that he has evidence and will crush them because I am sure he knows the people behind it.”

Asked if some legislators connive with accounting officer and Finance officials to take money for themselves when processing the budget, Parliament Spokesman Chris Obore said: “The President of Uganda has better intelligence than anyone else in Uganda. If that has been happening, it is best for those who have been doing it to immediately stop.”

Mr Museveni’s proposal for dialogue for possible amnesty for the budget thieves was met with noisy disapproval by MPs assembled in an overcast afternoon in Kololo. “You want blood,” he asked, meaning action.

“Yes”, they roared back, with Aringa South MP Sunday Odria who, alongside Lwemiyaga counterpart Theodore Ssekikubo, is spearheading planned censure of five parliamentary commissioners for gifting themselves Shs1.7 billion in “service awards’’, on his feet while clapping.

In yesterday’s address, President Museveni said budget corruption is birthed by “dishonesty” and “unforgivable” while individuals involved in graft by “mistake” require counselling to be aligned to the correct path of ethical public service.

Expenditure row

The Executive and Legislature have repeatedly crossed swords over the national budget. The President accuses lawmakers of applying public money to wasteful consumptive expenditures such as travel and workshops while MPs say the Executive, particularly State House, takes a disproportionate share of the national cake mainly through supplementary requests.

NRM members speak out on corruption

Hamson Obua, Government Chief Whip.

The President said he has the evidence of officials involved in this corruption [in government]. Let us give him a chance to act and at an appropriate time.

Henry Musasizi, State Minister of General Duties.

...you hear an Accounting Officer going to Parliament asking for more money which is not what we agreed upon [and] I think that is the genesis of the whole matter.

Theodore Ssekikubo, MP Lwemiyaga County.

The President confirmed that indeed there is massive theft and corruption at Parliament. So that one to us is a means that we should proceed with the Censure motion against the four Parliamentary Commissioners.

Lydia Wanyoto, NRM Women League Chairperson.

I don’t agree with the President on the issue of giving amnesty to the corrupt because those of us who are going upountry are paying the price as we have to dig deep into our pockets to pay for service delivery in our areas.