Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA Councilors on Tuesday exercised their mandate to scrutinize the Authority’s budget estimates for the financial year 2023/2024. It followed the decision by parliament to return the budget estimates to the council for discussion and approval,
Although the KCCA Act 2020 mandates the KCCA council to discuss and approve the city budget estimates, the State Minister for Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs Kabuye Kyofatogabye bypassed the council and submitted the budget to parliament as the case has been in the past few years.
The Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development released the second call budget circular on Feb 20th, 2023. The major objective of the second budget call circular is to enable the different votes to conclude the budgeting process and produce a Ministerial Statement, which is submitted to Parliament for the final appropriation of the budget.
When the circular was released, the KCCA technical wing, which manages the affairs of the authority, shared the same with the Central Executive Committee- CEC led by City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. However, before the technical wing and CEC could conclude their discussions on the same and table the budget to the Council, Kyofatogabye submitted the same to Parliament to the annoyance of the political leadership.
This prompted some of them to petition Parliament to distance themselves from the budget estimates, saying that they had been sidelined. On Tuesday, the KCCA Speaker, Zahra Luyirika told the council that parliament through the office of the Speaker heard their cry and decided to send back the budget estimates to KCCA for council approval.
Although the council had passed the earlier budget during the first budget call secular in November 2022, Luyirika said that the council cannot be ignored in considering the second budget call circular. She said that no one shall usurp the powers of the council, adding that they are committed to executing their mandate.
Innocent Tegusulwa, the Nakawa East 2 councilor expressed gratitude to parliament for having recognized that the mandate of the councilors was being overlooked and hence made orders to have the budget passed through the right procedures.
But as the Council sits to consider the budget, it works under strict timelines, which require them to have drawn a conclusion by 1 pm later today since it is expected to present its budget to parliament by 2 pm. To cover the load, it was decided in Council that all the ten Standing Committees sit to scrutinize the budgets of all the line directorates.
The committees are expected to report to Council this morning before a final decision is taken on the budget. According to the Circular, the government has allocated KCCA Shillings 423.849 billion. Of this, Shillings 211.035 billion shall come from Government financing, 186.006 billion Shillings from external funders, and Shillings 26.807 from the Uganda Road Fund.
KCCA is expected to collect 100 billion Shillings as Non-Tax Revenue. The KCCA’s budget still remains a question of debate as the Authority’s five-year strategic plan requires at least a trillion Shillings annually to cater to the financing needs of the City.
John Mary Ssebuwufu, the Secretary for Finance and Administration of CEC, while presenting the budget appealed to the government to enhance the City’s budget not only because it contributes the biggest percentage of revenue generated compared to other areas but because it is the Capital City and the face of the country.
Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura is equally dismayed about the budget allocated to the capital City. On her part, the Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka, said that they also hope for a bigger budget and are counting on the political leaders to amplify their demand for increased funds.