Gov’t spent UGX 2.85Bn to send Covid relief cash to vulnerable Ugandans

The public authority spent an aggregate of 2.854 billion Shillings on managerial expenses to send COVID-19 help money to weak Ugandans.

Henry Musasizi, the State Minister for Finance uncovered the figures while showing up before a joint gathering of the Public Accounts and the Local Government Committees of Parliament which are surveying a rundown of recipients of the COVID-19 money, which was postponed before parliament by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja last month.

Under the drive, the public authority has been disseminating 100,000 Shillings to chose individuals delegated powerless during the 42-day lockdown which finished on Friday. The recipients were recognized from gatherings of individuals that rely upon day by day profit in Kampala, all urban areas, and districts.

The 501,107 designated recipients included transport or cabbies, conductors, things transporters, wheeled cart pushers, promotes, traffic guides, barmen, DJs, barmaids, servers and bouncers, bar, exercise center and café laborers, boda riders, exceptional recruit drivers and Uber drivers, salons, rub parlor laborers, educators, and others.

Musasizi says that the Ministry of Finance had a supported COVID-19 crisis subsidizing adding up to 53.5 billion Shillings for which they mentioned the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development in a letter dated July 2, 2021, to officially present a solicitation and a work plan for the mediations to be embraced. Musasizi said that based on the conventional solicitation by the Ministry of Gender, the depository mentioned the Auditor General to permit advantageous use for various votes which included restrictions of 53.5 billion Shillings to the Ministry of Gender and the warrants were submitted on Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) on July 7, 2021.

Musasizi revealed to MPs that out of this spending plan, a sum of 2.854 billion Shillings was gone through on regulatory expenses including portable cash move costs. An amount of 50.645 billion Shillings was moved to the Ministry of Gender account in Post Bank to work with direct exchanges to the recipients.

Following his accommodation, Ojara Martin Mapenduzi, the Chairperson of the Local Government Accounts Committee entrusted the Minister to profit them with a breakdown of the 2.854 billion regulatory expenses and regardless of whether this was less expensive than what the public authority spent on the appropriation of food during the 2020 lockdown. The equivalent was additionally raised by Fred Opolot, the Pingire County MP.

Mawokota North MP Hillary Kiyaga likewise addressed whether the versatile cash organizations charged the public authority utilizing the ordinary rates or they gave a rebate. He said that 2.8 billion is by all accounts a greater expense of the quantity of exchanges.

Musasizi engaged the Committee to give him additional time. This solicitation was acknowledged by the joint panel initiative which gave him until Wednesday to give subtleties of the authoritative expenses recorded as a hard copy.

In the mean time, Medard Lubega Sseggona, the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee asked Musasizi to clarify for what valid reason the public authority picked cash moves rather than food alleviation and how the Ministry of Finance showed up at the figure of 53.5 billion Shillings for the recipients.

Musasizi shielded the public authority choice to give cash rather than food help saying that the involvement in the food appropriation practice last year was bad since in certain spots there was under conveyance, food taken and that this was more costly since the designated recipients for food were less.

He likewise said that the Ministry doesn’t have more cash to profit weak individuals except if another valuable spending plan is benefited by parliament.