{UAH} THORNY ERA: Government Runs low on Finances and pushes to Rush the 2013/14 Budget
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THORNY ERA: Government Runs low on Finances and pushes to Rush the 2013/14 Budget to save the already Embarrassing Situation as MPs, Ministries, Local Govts, Teachers, UPE, USE, Suffer the blow
The country's three financial players are in trouble as Government nears bankruptcy
Disturbing news reaching our desk indicates that the government is broke and is having a hard time clearing salaries, paying suppliers as well as contractors.
Highly placed sources within the Finance Ministry confirmed the government's current embarrassing financial position when we sought them out.
As a result, the government is moving to have the Parliament pass the 2013/2014 budget passed as fast as possible. Government has also cut down on imprest and allowances given to ministries and government departments.
Our source cited some of the evident scenarios that prove the regretful state our government is in.
Teachers
As we filed this report today, teachers had kicked off yet another strike, demanding an increase in their salaries. In fact, the NRM Parliamentary caucus members are at the moment holed up in a crisis meeting with their chairman President Yoweri Museveni to find a solution to the troubling financial times.
Professors and lecturers at Makerere University have also put government on notice that they will not turn up to lecture rooms come next semester.
" The University administration should not waste time opening the varsity for the next semester if the promised salary increase does not come to pass," Makerere University Academic Staff Association Spokesperson, Louis Kakinda told journalists last week.
Their source of grievance, Kakinda explains, stems from government's promise to increase their pay by 100% this financial year.
In subsequent meetings attended by government representatives and the lecturers, Kakinda claims, agreed that the increase will be implemented in bits starting with a 20% increase. The 20% increase, Kakinda adds, was agreed to be implemented in the next semester.
"We have information that government has gone back on its word regarding the 20% salary increase which is even captured in the 2013/14 budget. We shall not take the betrayal lying down. We shall express our displeasure by withdrawing our services come next semester," Kakinda charged.
Doctors
Info we have is that even doctors are also gearing up to go on strike if government does not implement the salary increases it promised them.
Some heath centers, especially those in the countryside, are said to be lacking drugs and other equipments used to treat patients.
However, the management of National Medical Stores (NMS) has always dismissed the reports, assuring Ugandans there are enough drugs to sustain the nation. NMS chiefs blame the lack of drugs on doctors who steal them or hoard them until they have been given a bribe.
UPE & USE
UPE schools around the country are also said to be stuck with no money to operate the government's free Universal Primary Education.
Our investigations indicate that private schools that are offering Universal Primary Education are contemplating sending the beneficiaries home because of delayed remittances from the Central government. The same is true for private secondary schools that are offering Universal Secondary Education.
Contractors and Suppliers
Contractors and suppliers of goods and services, we learnt, are too feeling the pinch with the broke government failing to deliver monies on time. Majority of such contractors have in fact been dragged to court for failing to pay suppliers of materials they use to perform contracts for government.
Under pressure, such contractors have in turn sued government or served the Attorney General, several ministries or government departments and agencies demanding payment.
Security
Some policemen and security officials, we understand, have also not been paid salaries for at least two months. Government has instead resorted to giving them free food so they can carry on in the absence of salaries.
Judiciary
In the judiciary, courts mostly upcountry are reported to be lacking stationery and ink and litigants are made to buy files in which to fasten their case documents.
Source of brokenness
The Government's financial woes heightened when the ruling party "raided" the treasury and drew sacks of money to fund the 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections. The election has since been billed as the most expensive in the country's history.
Military Jets
There was also uproar when government picked around 11 trillion from the national treasury without Parliamentary approval and bought six fighter jets from Russia. Government would later have Parliament approve the deal belatedly.
OPM/ Pension Scam
Still reeling from the foregoing financial setback, Ugandans would later wake up to disturbing news of the more than Shs50bn that was stolen in the Office of the Prime Minister. The money was meant to rehabilitate the war ravaged northern region of the country. The donors were so disappointed that they turned off the dollar taps.
Stuck, government still returned to the national treasury and secretly picked money to refund the donors' stolen dollars. But the donors were not impressed by the refund.
Defeated, government chose to hike taxes through the 2013/2014 Budget so that businesses would end up deflecting on the already financially hard up common man by increasing much needed commodities such as paraffin et cetera.
But, keen political observers blame the country's financial woes on the wasteful government, whose priorities are upside down. They argue that government spends way beyond its means and so is definitely destined to run into money problems.
Observers also argue that government spends a lot of money on a bloated cabinet, civil service, local government, Presidential Advisors who rarely do their jobs, stadia of RDCs, DISOs, GISOs, who perform duplicated work, among such bureaucracy.
In short, the pundits say government is wasting more money on consumption other than production. There are many mouths waiting to be fed than the hands willing to engage in productive work.
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