A conglomerate of civil society organisations has expressed concern about the persistent and expanding abuse of the supplementary provision in the Public Finance Management (PFMA) Act 2015, leading to undermining fiscal credibility.
They noted that the problem is no longer at the central government level, having infected the local governments too. These views emerged at a media briefing where perspectives on Uganda’s Shs 72.37-trillion budget for 2025/26 at were aired out PELUM Uganda offices in Ntinda, Kampala on June 8, 2025.
Among the many examples in their 12-page official statement, the CSOs stated: “According to the Office of the Auditor General, whereas 20 LGs received Shs 164.5bn through supplementary budget, only Shs 119,17bn of this had been approved by the respective LG councils.
Additionally, 38 LGs received Shs 131.08bn (56 per cent) out of Shs 233.94bn in supplementary funding, which was not requested by the respective accounting officers. The CSOs included Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Association (PELUM Uganda), SEATINI, Uganda Debt Network (UDN) and Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), each of them an umbrella comprising smaller think tanks and non-governmental organisations.
They also pointed out government’s continuous failure to absorb supplementary allocations: “A review of the Auditor General’s reports over the past six fiscal years revealed that Shs 17.3 trillion remained unspent, while Shs 30.2tn was allocated through supplementary budgets. In certain instances, such as the financial year 2022/23, unspent funds (Shs 5.8tn) even exceeded the supplementary budget (Shs 4.4tn).”
Noting the special importance of this budget, given that it involves an elections campaign year and being the first year of the five- year fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV), the CSOs decried the persistent failure to achieve revenue collection targets, adding that the highly monetized campaigns are likely to lead to high inflation.
With low revenue collections, the government resorts to more borrowing, increasing the debt burden.
“With just one month left in the current FY2024/25, URA still needs to collect Shs 4 trillion to meet its target of Shs 32tn…Despite these persistent shortfalls, revenue targets continue to rise. In FY 2025/26, the revenue target has increased to Shs 37tn, up from Shs 32tn in FY 2024/25,” the statement added.