Most of the central and local government entities have failed to submit their budget performance reports for the last quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year, which ended in June.
According to documents from the finance ministry, out of a total of 157 central government ministries and agencies, only 11 had submitted their performance reports.
In a communication from the deputy secretary to the Treasury, Patrick Ocailap, dated July 27, 2021, to all accounting officers, no single local government had submitted a performance report.
Ocailap further noted that out of the 176 local government votes that had submitted the approved performance contracts, only 66 had presented hard copies of the approved performance contracts for countersigning.
He has directed accounting officers who are yet to submit their budget performance reports to do so expeditiously without fail.
In line with the budget release and reporting timelines, the central and local government votes were required to submit their quarter four budget performance reports for 2020/2021 by July 31, this year.
The 11 entities that have submitted their budget performance reports include Uganda Export Promotion Board, External Security Organisation, Directorate of Government Analytical Laboratory, Mission in Nigeria, Mission in DR Congo, Mission in Saudi Arabia, Mission in Sudan, Mission in Canberra, Mission in Bujumbura, Mission in Guangzhou and the Mission in Malyasia.
Out of all the ministries no single one had submitted its budget performance, including the finance ministry, the Office of the Prime Minister and the public service ministry, which are supposed to supervise other government entities.
Even the institution of Parliament, which is supposed to carry out oversight over other government entities, had not submitted its budget performance report.
However, Vincent Bugiire, the new permanent secretary for the foreign affairs ministry, said the COVID-19 effects have greatly affected the performance of government ministries.
“We have been in a lockdown. We were directed to reduce our staff to only 10%.
You cannot expect that small number of staff to do the magic. The lockdown locked everything. Even when someone is working from home, there are many things they cannot do. That is why no single ministry, including the finance ministry, has completed its budget performance report,” he explained.
Bagiire, who is a former legislator, noted that the law that provides for the accountability timelines is blind to emergencies, such as COVID-19 and the lockdown, which brought so many things to a standstill.
The executive director of the Institute of Corporate Governance, Dison Okumu, said: “It is a matter of compliance to the accountability requirements. And the level of compliance should not be just for the sake of meeting legal requirements. Corporate governance demands that accountability comes from within the person. The accounting officers are negligent and ineffective because they know nothing will be done to them.”
Okumu, who worked as a technocrat in Parliament for many years, emphasised the need for government to entrench corporate governance principles of transparency, trust, accountability, integrity, responsibility and excellence for better performance of government ministries and agencies.
“If the accounting officers were adhering to the above principles, they would perform to the expectations. These principles are lacking in government institutions. Public institutions need to undergo basic training on corporate governance principles and practices. As the Institute of Corporate Governance, we are ready to help them build that capacity,” he said.
Commenting on the matter, the Forum for Democratic Change spokesperson, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, said: “In all matters of public finances and accountability, there must be sanctions against individuals and institutions that default. The most practical remedy should have been not to release funds for entities that failed to comply, but that would hurt many innocent citizens. The responsible accounting officers need to be punished as individuals.”
Ssemujju argued that the complacency in accountability by accounting officers, which has also appeared in many of the Auditor General’s reports, implies that many of them do not respect procedures and requirements for accounting for taxpayers’ money entrusted to them.
“It also means that the oversight and monitoring systems of government do not seem to be working, which is why we continue to have that level of ineffectiveness. There is a high likelihood for such accounting officers to abuse the entire accounting system,” he added.
