Published on 16/07/2024
Ramathan Ggoobi, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, unveiled bold fiscal reforms to slash wasteful spending. A major initiative targets reducing government travel, clamping down on unnecessary international trips masquerading as essential benchmarking. These measures aim to ensure taxpayer money is spent more efficiently and transparently.
“But now, they were using that gap to go for trips which aren’t even necessary. They are going to construct a road, that they have gone to Malaysia to benchmark. A road is a road, get technical people to test the soil, test the strength of the ground and build the damn road, what are you doing in Malaysia? And when they reach Malaysia, they are taking selfies on tall buildings and they come back. Those travels I want to tell you; we are sniffing them out and we are cutting them. Workshops, parties, all the time parties, those things we have cut them,” Ggoobi emphasized on June 28, 2024.
Ggoobi’s remarks were made during a training session for journalists from the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association on the National Budget for FY 2024/2025 at Hotel Africana in Kampala. He clarified that while there will be a reduction in travel budgets, it does not mean a complete halt to official travel. Rather, future travels will be more purposeful and necessary.
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“Some years back, there are certain things that used to have money. Travel abroad, 5 years ago was Shs241Bn now, it is UGX 105Bn, but you also say, that is also a lot of money. But also, you aren’t running a kiosk, you are running a State, with so many people and so many needs. You have to put things into context because sometimes it is as if you are comparing your personal budget with the State budget. We also have that weakness in Uganda, I see it. I want us to be scientific. There are certain travels that are so critical, they must be done by the State,” Ggoobi added.
Regarding the focus of the 2024/25 national budget, Ggoobi highlighted a shift from the past two years’ emphasis on helping businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. The Shs100Bn allocated for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will now focus on growth rather than recovery.
“Then we have another Shs100Bn to support SMEs to grow, not to recover from COVID-19. Those that failed to recover, they died, unfortunately. But you see, economies are like us human beings. There are some people I see you in media, businesses have died, yes, businesses are like us, some die and the day one dies, another one is born. We don’t want them to die, but that is the natural order. Some businesses will die, but also, many others will be born,” remarked Ggoobi.
He stressed the importance of ensuring that only businesses that cannot be resuscitated are allowed to fail, comparing this to making every effort to save a person even with severe illness.
Furthermore, Ggoobi acknowledged that significant growth and development of Uganda’s economy require decisive actions against corruption. Effective audits are crucial in unveiling corruption and holding those responsible accountable.
“There are certain things which don’t work in the fight against corruption, and there are those which are effective. There are about four practical ways of fighting corruption. Number one is effective performance audits of how Government money is spent. If you don’t do that, you will talk and talk, and sing and everybody now is a corruption champion but don’t do much,” Ggoobi explained.
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He urged journalists to be active participants in tracking government budgets and fostering accountability. “I want Government to develop the spirit of accountability, and we are accounting and this accountability, must be in the form of results, not paper accountability, big books, with a lot of figures and reports, we go beyond this,” he concluded.
