Opposition to make alternative budget

The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga has announced that they are adopting a new approach to the national budget.

Speaking at the ongoing retreat in Entebbe, Mpuuga said they are moving away from the old practice of responding to the government’s proposals to developing a completely different alternative national budget.

Mpuuga has explained that the new approach is in line with their mandate to keep the government in check.

“It is our duty to deeply study the prepositions of the government and put some level of imagination and produce alternatives. The mandate is to produce alternatives but not to support, not to clarify and not in any way recommend or patch up government policies,” Mpuuga said.

“We are not supposed to clean up their mess… our job is to offer citizens a cleaner and better alternative,” he added.

He says the new approach has been conceived after realizing that the government mostly presents to parliament recycled budget proposals.

“We remember the embarrassment Parliament suffered last Financial Year when ministers presented the same documents from the previous year with the only change being the financial year. The rest was the same including the preamble,” Mpuuga said.

He invited his ministers to appreciate their oversight role under the new programme-based planning and budgeting which was developed under the 3rd National Development Programme (NDP III).

During the retreat, the Shadow Cabinet is going to generate priorities for the next financial year which will form the Opposition’s proposals in the alternative national budget to be unveiled to the country in April.

Written by Ritah Kemigisa