The Parliament budget is scheduled to climb from the Shs918 billion ring-fenced for expenditure in the current Financial Year (FY) to Shs1.5 trillion in FY2029/2030. Projections seen by Sunday Monitor outline major drivers of the budget to include emoluments, and associated benefits such as medical insurance of lawmakers.
Multi-year commitments under the construction of the new chamber of Parliament and participation in the annual East African Community Inter-Parliamentary Games are also reasons for the budget’s upward growth. These increments are laid out in the Strategic Plan for Parliament 2025-2030 as authored and released by Parliament on September 26. The plan, a copy of which Sunday Monitor has seen, was unveiled this past week in Parliament’s Conference Hall in the presence of Mr Adolf Mwesige Kasaija, the Clerk to Parliament; heads of departments in the House and other staff members.
Speaker Anita Among had her speech delivered by Ms Esther Afoyochan, the Zombo District Woman Representative. Budget plans of the House show that expenditure projections for FY2026/2027 stand at Shs970 billion, Shs1.1 trillion for FY2027/2028 and Shs1.3 trillion for FY2028/2029. Parliament’s wage Bill alone will jump from the current Shs117 billion for FY2025/2026 to Shs142.272 billion in FY2029/2030. FY2026/2027, which will formally usher in the 12th Parliament, has its wage expenditures locked in at Shs123 billion.
Subsequent FYs will also witness steady rises-Shs129 billion in 2027/2028 and Shs135 billion in 2028/2029. The high projections come amid cries of salary disparities among government workers. The Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu) is currently pressing the government to revise upwards the salaries of teachers of the arts and humanities to match figures that their counterparts teaching sciences get.
Dismayed
Mr Timothy Chemonges, the executive director of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), expressed his dismay at the House’s growing expenditure budget.
‘This kind of jump,’ he observed, ‘is difficult to justify, especially at a time when the country is tightening its belt.’ He added: ‘I recognise that Parliament needs resources to do its work effectively, legislation, oversight, representation and appropriation all come at a cost, but such a sharp increase raises legitimate questions about priorities and accountability.’
Mr Chemonges also noted that ‘Ugandans want to see a Parliament that’s efficient and people-centred; not one that appears to be expanding its budget faster than its performance.’ Growth in the institution’s funding, he further observed, ‘should reflect clear improvements in service, transparency, and the quality of representation, not just bigger administrative or recurrent costs.’ The August House’s policy wonks have in the same strategic plan indicated that the finances so far mapped out could be insufficient.
Already, the current FY2025/2026 had a Shs2.6 billion slash off from the Shs120 billion that was anticipated in document plans authored by the National Planning Authority (NPA). Overall, the House’s budget for FY2025/2026 was shorn of Shs201 billion. There are also similar deductions for budgets of FY2026/2027 (Shs215 billion), FY2027/2028 (Shs248 billion), FY2028/2029 (Shs122 billion) and FY2029/2030 (Shs3.3 billion). Owing to this, Parliament has already expressed fears that these cuts will adversely affect targets set for the respective years.
This, House officials warn, will leave Parliament with little choice but to press the government to mobilise more funds to plug the funding gaps.
Parliament also through its Commission plans to ‘strengthen mechanisms for attracting funding from development partners.’
Scramble for space
Chief among the House’s plans is the move to complete the construction of its new chamber. Parliament reasons that the House chamber, erected in 1960 to hold 82 members, now struggles to accommodate the 556 members of the 11th Parliament. The current building has only 12 committee rooms in which all the 29 committees of Parliament have to operate business. ‘[This implies] that some Committees do not hold meetings as and when necessary, due to lack of seating space,’ the document outlining the strategic plan going forward reads in part.
Yet the speedy construction of the chambers that had been anticipated when construction of the same commenced on July 27, 2017 has since slowed down.
When it picks up pace, the strategic plan indicates that the construction will gobble up at least Shs220 billion of the taxpayer’s money.
‘The chamber that had originally been targeted to be completed on July 27, 2020 stands at 44.9 percent as at September 1, 2024,’ the plan reads in part.
It added: ‘There is need to expedite construction of the new Chamber in order to avail a conducive environment for effective legislation, oversight and representation in line with the Strategic Plan of Parliament FY2024/2025-2029/2030 and NDP IV LOR Programme priorities.’
The new building is also scheduled to avail office space for all lawmakers, putting an end to a spell that has seen the House shoehorn its staff and lawmakers in Kingdom Kampala, a commercial property. At the start of 11th Parliament, Mr Chris Obore, the Director of Communications and Public Affairs, revealed that ‘the Parliamentary Commission will spend Shs9.8 billion per year for 9,030 square metres within Kingdom Kampala.’ He went to indicate that this would come with a parking space of 300 vehicles.
Parliament also rents space on Victoria’s Chambers, Development House and Queens Chambers. Besides cutting on such costs, the five-year strategy of the Fourth National Development Plan (NDPIV) also shows that Parliament intends to promote public participation in legislative processes, enhance its brand awareness, strengthen accountability and transparency of the institution, among others.
Need to be frugal
Economists and policy analysts that Sunday Monitor sounded out greeted news of the House’s expenditure increments with a mixture of horror and anger.
Mr Eric Odongo, an economist, told us that, whereas representation is necessary, the cost of funding the legislative assembly should be economically affordable.
‘The plan recognises that one of the threats is the public mistrust of the institution, but comparing with their own recognised cost drivers you can see that it is their benefits-East African Games, among others,’ Mr Odongo said in an interview, adding ‘To the struggling taxpayer, the big elephant in the room is: can our public purse finance this plan without causing further scars? Representation and oversight are key, but it should be economically affordable.’
Consequently, the economist recommends that House expenditures be aligned with the current financial situation in Uganda. ‘Under the programme approach over 80 percent of resources in the legislation, oversight and representation programme are in parliament alone and yet the same function happens at district level too where significant service delivery happens. In my view the plan should prioritise the unit cost of being represented in the sight of a taxpayer,’ Mr Odongo said.
Mr Chemonges concurs. He told Sunday Monitor thus: ‘The justification that the growth is mainly to cover MPs’ salaries and allowances, this is where the real problem lies. When the bulk of additional funding goes into salaries and allowances, it sends the wrong message, especially when sectors like education and health are struggling to provide basic services. It tells citizens that leadership has become more about comfort than service. We have teachers who cannot access their pay on time and hospitals that lack essential medicines. In such a context, increasing MPs’ benefits looks tone deaf.’
He therefore opines that ‘leadership should be about sacrifice and stewardship. Parliament should be setting the tone for prudent spending, not competing for a bigger share of the pie when ordinary Ugandans are tightening theirs.’