Big Story: Over UGX 1 trillion spent on 2021 Uganda elections

The government has in total allocated 1.073 trillion Shillings to various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) involved in the implementation of election-related activities in the run-up to January 2021, general election.

This is according to the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update released by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

The report, signed by Moses Kaggwa, the Acting Director of Economic Affairs says that the amount required by the various MDAs involved in preparation and conduct of the general election for the electoral roadmap from the financial year 2019/2020 to the financial year 2021/2022 is 1.255 trillion Shillings. The biggest share of this amount totaling 772.24 billion Shillings is under the Electoral Commission (EC).                       

The breakdown further indicates that 224.25 billion Shillings was budgeted and released for election-related activities in the financial year 2019/2020 while in the current financial year 2020/2021, a total of 849.17 billion Shillings was budgeted bringing the total to 1.073 trillion Shillings. Of this amount, 768.42 billion Shillings has already been released to the various MDAs involved in election activities.    

The Public Finance Management Act requires the Minister of Finance to Publish a pre-election economic and fiscal update not earlier than four months before the polling day for a general election. The update details all the election-related spending including the expenses of the Electoral Commission for the cost of the general election and any other expenses of a vote related to the election.   

“All MDAs involved in the electoral process was allocated funds as requested in the financial year 2019/2020 and financial year 2020/2021. This is with exception of Uganda Police Force whose budget was cut by Parliament by 67.10 billion Shillings, and the Electoral Commission which programmed to receive some of the funds in the financial year 2021/2022 to cover post-election costs,” the report shows.    

The Ministry of Finance reveals that as of November 2020, a total of 456.87 billion Shillings had been spent on election-related activities and the bulk of this amount totaling 274.11 billion Shillings was spent by the EC followed by the Uganda Police Force with 154.79 billion Shillings.    

The other entities that have spent funds include the Ministry of Internal Affairs 1.82 billion, National Citizenship and Immigration Control (NCIC) 1.9 billion, Uganda Prisons Service 11.35 billion, National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) 12.22 billion, and the Department of Government Analytical Laboratory (DGAL) 670 million Shillings.