Address corruption first, for good policies to make sense to Ugandans, says Kyagulanyi

The Opposition side at the launch of the Alternative budget proposals

Speaking at the launch of the Opposition’s Alternative Budget Priorities for Financial Year 2024/2025, Kyagulanyi said considering the Human Rights Approach to the budget to address the plight of the people of Uganda, the party will not compromise on fighting corruption if the opposition is to remove the undemocratic leaders from power and subsequently implement the good policy alternatives.

NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu

“However attractive all these alternative policies might be, it is actually impossible to achieve them, if the leaders in charge of our resources can not rise above their petty selfishness. We must resist, we must reject, in fact eject all forms of corruption in public Administration otherwise all this will be going to a waste. Our resources will continue sinking down the long drain of personal greed at the expense of our collective wellbeing and the livelihoods of our people , our children and our children’s children,” said Kyagulanyi

As Parliament continues to execute its mandate of budget appropriation for the financial year 2024-2025, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi noted with concern that the budget will not benefit the citizens if the gruesome leakages of public resources are not closed.

Ssenyonyi said leaders at all levels ought to join efforts to address the rampant corruption that eats away public resources that would facilitate service delivery.

The Alternative Budget Priorities by the opposition is premised on the theme “Fostering Resilient Communities combating Corruption and promoting Efficient Service Delivery; A human Rights-based approach to resource allocation.”

Ssenyonyi said that it is for this reason that the political Opposition joins the traders downtown in their peaceful demonstration against the unfair taxation that does not yield service delivery.

“It is no wonder that government is proposing taxes in Certain commodities and services which are going to further burden the population that is already not seeing the service delivery for the tax that they pay. Currently we need to save this money that is stolen by the thieves, that way we will not have to dig deeper in the pockets of struggling citizenry,” added Ssenyonyi noted.

The Nakawa West MP said that political Opposition in Parliament is not just to oppose the sitting government for the sake of it but that it is executing its mandate of keeping the government in check but also provide alternative policies for good governance and proper utilization of public resources for effective service delivery to the people.

“This duty goes beyond oversight, it is a sincere commitment to uphold the principles of good governance and ensuring that every Ugandan benefits equitably from the wealth of our nation, our duty to keep the government in check is not simply a matter of political rivalry, It is a fundamental aspect of our democratic systems. It is through oversight and scrutiny that we ensure that power is exercised responsibly, and the voices of the marginalized people are heard and represented. As we engage, in this process of budgetary deliberation, let’s remain steadyfast in our commitment to upholding the principles of good governance.”

Ssenyonyi reminded his colleagues in Parliament that the people’s confidence in their abilities as representatives is not only a privilege, but it should be a guiding force propelling them to serve and commit to ensuring efficient service delivery with accountability to the population.

“As leaders it is our duty to confront corruption head-on and ensure public resources are used for the benefit of all not for the enrichment of the few, on an annual basis we (Uganda) loses over 10 trillion shillings to corruption, think about how many hospitals this money could build and equip,roads, schools or other critical services delivery areas, there is no way this country’s resource envelope will benefit the citizenry for as long as a huge portion of this money lost to thieves at different levels in government”-Ssenyonyi

Ibrahim Ssemugu Nganda, the shadow Minister for Finance stressed that Uganda is currently faced with a huge burden of managing its public debt which stands at UGX97.4 trillion.

“With a budget of 58 trillion shillings, 20.6 trillion shillings was allocated for debt servicing and of this, UGX7.6 trillion will go towards interest payment, 13 trillion shillings is for payment of the principle amount which means that Debt servicing will consume 38 % of our total Budget of 58 trillion shillings,” said Ssemujju.

Ssemujju explains that while in principle the Opposition is not against borrowing to finance the country’s development agenda, they reject mortgaging the country through reckless borrowing since this kind of borrowing erodes Uganda’s sovereignty.

He noted that today the biggest portion of the budget goes to debt management leaving a small portion as the actual budget for service delivery.

“When all this is reduced, the resources for parliament to prioritize next financial year will be 13.6 trillion shillings that is the budget government has presented but you see the minister with a huge big and he will say I have brought a budget of 54 trillion shilling s when actually the budget is 13 trillion when you remove the wages , the debt serving , you remove gratuity, you remove pensions, all that you remain with is 13 trillion shillings, that is what debt servicing has done to our economy,” added Ssemujju.

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