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1. Analysis of the National Budget Estimates FY 2023/24: Budget Lines for Local Government Mandates under Central Government MDAs and Proposals for Re-Allocation

Author:
Daniel Lukwago
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
To enable Local Governments (LGs) to provide services to the citizens, the Central Government (CG) of Uganda is required to provide them grants in the form of unconditional, conditional and equalisation. However, over the last decade, there has been a decline in the share of transfers from CG to LGs. The share of the national budget allocated to LG programmes has reduced from 22 per cent in FY 2010/11 to 13 per cent in FY 2015/16 and fell further to 9.8 per cent in FY 2023/14. The decline is largely attributed to recentralization of functions and resources which by law are mandated under LGs. A study by ACODE in 2020, which was a follow-up study, found that despite recommendations of the 2019 study, the allocation of funds meant for LGs to Central Government Ministries Departments and Agencies n(MDAs) had not only persisted, but the absolute amounts as well as the proportion of the budget being retained at the CG had increased. The total amount retained at CG MDAs had grown to UGX 1.32 trillion in FY2020/21 from UGX 1.066 trillion in FY 2019/20. Consequently, with funding from the Royal Danish Embassy (RDE), ACODE commissioned this follow-up study to examine the approved national budget estimates for FY 2023/24 to identify budget lines for devolved services under CG MDAs. The study extensively reviewed all relevant budget documents, focusing mainly on the approved estimates of revenue and expenditure (recurrent and development) FY 2023/24. The study analysed ten programmes with decentralised functions as prescribed in the Local Government Act, CAP 243 (second Schedule) and identified funds retained by the CG MDAs, yet they are mandated for LGs. The programmes analysed were Agro-Industralisation; Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, Land and Water Management; Private Sector Development; Integrated Transport Infrastructure and Services; Sustainable Urbanization and Housing; Human Capital Development, Community Mobilization and Mindset Change Regional Development; Public Sector Transformation and Tourism Development.
Topic:
Budget, Decentralization, Assessment, and Local Government
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

2. Financing Local Governments in Uganda An analysis of the Proposed National Budget FY 2019/20 and Proposals for Re-allocation

Author:
Ramathan Ggoobi and Daniel Lukwago
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
The Central Government is required by Article 193 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 (as amended) to provide grants to LGs in form of unconditional, conditional and equalisation grants. However, there has been a decline in transfers from Central Government to LGs; the share of the national budget allocated to LG programs reduced to 10 percent in FY2018/19 from 13 percent in 2016/17. The decline is largely attributed to recentralisation of functions and resources that by law are mandated to LGs. Therefore, Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) with support from USAID and UKAID under the Governance, Accountability, Participation and Performance (GAPP) program commissioned this study to analyse the proposed national budget allocations for FY 2019/20 to ascertain budgetary allocations that should be implemented by the Local Governments (LGs) but retained by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and recommend for reallocation to LGs with a view of influencing the final budget allocations. The study relied mainly on an extensive document review of all relevant budget documents focusing mainly on the Draft Estimates of Expenditure (Recurrent and Development) FY 2019/20. Identifying budget lines meant for LGs, was done through three stages, by determining whether: budget line was relevant or not to LGs; the identified budget line could be transferred directly to the LGs or not; and the budget line could be rationalized by the MDAs to improve service delivery and also free funds for LGs. The exercise explicitly took a ‘prioritised’ approach to identify LG relevant budgets and did not exhaustively review each and every expenditure item within the national budget. The approach was to identify those sectors with decentralised functions as prescribed in the LG Act (schedule 2), which included: Agriculture, Education, Health, Social Development, Water and Environment, and Works and Transport.
Topic:
Governance, Budgeting, and Local Government
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa