PARLIAMENT: Budget committee rejects Sh 336 Billion proposal to purchase radios for learners

PARLIAMENT: Members of Parliament of the Parliament’s Budget Committee have dismissed the proposal from the Ministry of Education to spend sh336b for the purchase of radio equipment for learners amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a closed-door meeting held by the budget committee during the consideration of procurement of radios for all households in Uganda, the MPs reject the proposal from the Ministry alongside other supplementary requests.

The legislators confirmed how there are not going to be any further consideration on the matter by the committee, which is preparing a report to be tabled before Parliament because government failed to disclose the source of funding for the item.

Charles Illukor (Kumi County) said their recommendation to Parliament is to have the proposal to buy radios for learners rejected by the House.

“Even if the funding is secured, there is no need to actually approve the procurement of radios because there are many reasons the committee found that don’t add up, it is just wastage of resources,” Illukor noted.

In the supplementary request, the education ministry sought for sh336b to purchase nine million radio sets, and that a Chinese company had already been procured to assemble the radios at the Kampala Business Park in Namanve Mukono.

Last month, Minister of State for Planning, David Bahati, tabled before Parliament a supplementary request of sh6.4 trillion to finance the budget deficit.

In his presentation, Bahati told MPs how funds would be acquired through a loan from Stanbic Bank Uganda, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance the supplementary schedule.

During the scrutiny of the supplementary, MPs realised the fund for the radios was not part of the loans from Stanbic Bank and IMF as the finance ministry had earlier purported.