Finance PS Ggoobi links budget poor performance to politicians

By Francis Lubega

19^th March 2024

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Ramathan Ggoobi has attributed the unrealistic poor performance of the national budget to politicians.

This was after the Auditor General’s report of the financial year ended 2022/23 showing that the Finance Ministry continues to issue warrants of payments against the actual funds released putting the Government into cumulative arrears.

While appearing before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee-Central Government chaired by Butambala County MP Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, Ggoobi said that the failure to meet the committed warrants is caused by the unforeseen projection changes and altering in the set budget framework paper by policy makers.

According to the Auditor General’s report for the year under review, the Ministry of Finance approved a budget of 52.5 trillion shillings, of which 49.2 trillion shillings was committed to be released but on realization of revenue, only 43 trillion shillings was released to Government agencies and entities, leaving a deficit of 5.8 trillion shillings that put Government into arrears.

However, the committee members rejected Ggoobi’s excuse of blaming politicians for not achieving the set budget performance targets, saying that politicians do not project revenues and warrants to be released to agencies for expenditure except the Finance Ministry.

END