{UAH} The Observer - Ex minister Suruma slams govt policies
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The Observer - Ex minister Suruma slams govt policies
Tuesday, 19 August 2014 23:50
Inhouse critic: Former minister Ezra Suruma
Dr Suruma, currently a senior presidential advisor, was minister of Finance from 2005 to 2009. He said the structural adjustment programmes under which Uganda privatised most of its state-run enterprises didn't deliver the desired results.
Speaking at a conference whose theme was, "The changing role of parliament under the Public Finance Management Bill 2012, at Hotel Africana on Monday, Suruma said Uganda needs to learn from China and other countries where state-run institutions and corporations are doing very well.
The conference was organised by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Parliament Watch Uganda. The former managing director of the defunct Uganda Commercial bank, called for a return to state-run corporations, including banks.
"The Washington Consensus (structural adjustment programmes) under which we privatised everything, I think, is struggling. We were with the former minister of Finance of Zambia last week, talking about restructuring, and he said that in his country foreigners own all the assets right from the ground, that is the copper mines, and so locals own nothing," Suruma said.
Suruma also spoke of Bank of Uganda being too strong and uncontrolled.
"There is a gap that needs to be closed. What kind of democracy is this where we have a parliament that has no control over Bank of Uganda?" he asked. Suruma lamented that majority of employment opportunities are in the private sector, which is starved of capital.
"What is the use of stability without putting resources in the hands of the people?" he wondered.
"To appreciate the importance of people is not just a matter of roads and electricity and infrastructure projects; of what use are they when the people are poor? Ninety per cent of the companies [implementing the infrastructure projects] are owned by foreigners, which means money is being externalised. We are being brainwashed by some foreign thinkers," he argued.
Suruma called for the creation and capitalisation of development banks so as to increase capital availability to Ugandans.
The Bill
Analysts say that the Public Finance Bill 2012 currently before Parliament vests a lot of power in technocrats and the executive arm of government. For instance, a report by the Finance committee released recently noted that while the powers of both the minister and especially the secretary to the treasury are spelled out in great detail and with high specificity, those of Parliament are relatively more broad and general.
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