By Gladys Nanyombi
The minister of Finance, planning and economic development has been asked to reduce the budget allocation of Ushs 6.9 trillion meant for Governance and security and direct more resources towards programs that are more productive and hitherto provide more jobs to the youth and the poor as well as increasing household incomes.
Dokolo Woman MP Ms. Cecilia Ogwal challenged the when the minister of Finance at parliament when presenting the revised Budget for year 2021/2022 to the parliament finance committee on Monday.
Cecilia Ogwal said government has for many years allocated a lot of money to the Governance and security department but nothing has been done to include mechanisms for conflict resolutions in maintaining law and order.
“All you are concerned about us buying more tear gas to harm people and to cause air pollution but you are not concentrating on finding out why people end up on streets and protest over simple issues, we should focus more on agriculture instead of putting much money in security”, said Cecilia.
Ms. Cecilia added that the ministry of Finance should focus on income generation programs like Agriculture, Tourism, industrialization so that the youth and the poor are given opportunity to showcase their potential in sectors of their interests.
“Ugandans have enough land to carry out agriculture and industrialization but they have not been facilitated by the government so they end up growing crops with no market to sell their produce.
The government needs to look into that when making budget allocations because if you do not boost agriculture in your country, then you are the enemy of the people, “Cecilia added.
Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi brought the matter to the attention when he told minister Kasaija that a lot of money is being spent on the construction of roads, energy generation among others but Ugandans are not employed therefore the government has to engage its people in issues concerning development.
