Gov’t seeks Shs 3.3bn Budget for Presidential Advisors offices

KAMPALA, UGANDA: Government of Uganda is seeking a supplementary budget allocation of Shs 3.3 billion to secure office space for more than 20 special presidential advisors at the Kingdom Kampala building.

The DailyExpress has exclusively learnt that on the list of those who will occupy the offices are former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who is now a special envoy to the President, former Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, former Security minister General Elly Tumwine, former Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, former ministers Amelia Kyambadde, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi, and Sarah Kanyike among others.

This was revealed by Yunus Kakande, the undersecretary in the Office of the President who appeared before parliament’s budget committee to request a supplementary budget of close to Shs 36 billion.

According to Kakande, Shs 3.3 billion has been used to procure office space and partition it at Kingdom Kampala, a building owned by businessman Sudhir Ruparelia.

The advisors will join the 323 members of parliament who already have offices at Kingdom Kampala, a facility rented at Shs 18 billion for two years. Kakande says that the process which is expected to be complete by January 2022 was unavoidable because of the president’s appointment.

Meanwhile, part of the supplementary budget arises out of payment of Shs 1.5 billion to Commonwealth Resort, Munyonyo, another facility owned by Sudhir, for hosting State visitors for the swearing of President Museveni and inaugural ceremonies in May 2021.

Others are the payment of court awards to former Makerere University chancellor Mondo Kagonyera at Shs 3.9 billion and operationalization of the Apex platform at Shs 3 billion, for learning and effective utilization of monitoring and evaluation results, and build capacity within the Office of the President and other oversight actors that will, in turn, enhance the overall monitoring and evidence-based reporting for all government policies, programs, and projects.

Another Shs 550 million is for the procurement of station wagons for the minister for Economic Monitoring among others. However, the committee chairperson Patrick Isiagi Opolot asked the team to go back and reconcile their presentation as they did not clarify the money that they have already spent compared to what they are yet to spend.