PS Ggoobi Wants Gov't to Stop Buying Fuel Guzzlers for To Officials
chimpreports.com, August 31, 2022 | The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, has suggested that government should revise the policy of buying big cars for its top officials.
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| File Photo/Courtesy: Dr. Ggoobi Ramathan, Permanent Secretary and Secretary to Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Republic of Uganda. |
According to the 2021/22 financial year budget, government doled out Shs714b towards purchasing vehicles for public servants and politicians in the country.
But according to Mr Ggoobi, a revision of the policy would free some funds which government would allocate to poverty alleviation and wealth creation.
Speaking at the 6th High Level Economic Summit organised by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, 31 August 2022, Mr Ggoobi reasoned that this also fits into government’s cost cutting strategy amid the declining revenue occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic and the global inflation.
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“In Uganda, we have this problem of everybody wanting to have a big car and the policy allows them. As a government, we need to go back and perhaps revise that policy,” Mr Ggoobi, is also the Finance ministry permanent secretary, said.
“The word economics means economizing. It is about working within your limits. The government is actually cutting expenditure. It started years ago and it is happening. We want to reserve some resources for business and wealth creation. We need the support of all stakeholders in order to reduce expectations and reserve some resources for investment in wealth creation,” he added.
Mr Ggoobi said the government has also cut expenses in the first quarter of the financial year 2022/23 to support monetary policy actions.
“We want to align ourselves to the monetary policy,” he said, adding that governing isusing sound appropriate fiscal and monetary policies as well as cutting expenditure.
“We have resisted the temptation by people to go away from economics to common sense,” he said, explaining why they resisted providing subsidies and price controls especially on fuel.
World Bank Country Manager Mukami Kariuki commended government of Uganda for prioritising macroeconomic stability over short term solutions but also urged it to close gaps by strengthening social protection systems to support the vulnerable and also strengthen education and health systems.
Mr. Tom Sengalama, the Team Leader – Nature, Climate, Energy and Resilience at UNBS, urged government not to ignore the issue of climate change.
“Business as usual isn’t going to take us anywhere. Deforestation and soil erosion have caused significant losses to Uganda. If this trend continues, the dream of attaining a middle-income status may not be easily attainable,” he said.
“We want to balance our three quadrants of social-economic growth. This economic growth should be inclusive and touch all aspects of life. We are looking at production & consumption systems that are socially and environmentally sustainable,” he said.
Mr Ggoobi’s remarks as the government continues to spend large sums of money to purchase a fleet of vehicles, fuel and oil lubricants and pay for its maintenance.
According to the 2021/22 financial year budget, government doled out Shs714b towards purchasing vehicles for public servants and politicians in the country.
The cost consists of the following; fuel, lubricants and oils (Shs257.4b), vehicle maintenance (Shs110.6b) and transport equipment (Shs346.5b).
Of this, Parliament received a vote of Shs127b, the Defence ministry got a vote of Shs161b and Uganda police Shs62b.
The Office of the President received Shs20b while the Health ministry was allocated at least Shs10.9b and State House Shs21b.
According to records of the Auditor General’s report for the 2020/2021 financial year, government spent nearly Shs118b to purchase vehicles in the last three financial years.
This sum excluded costs on fuel, lubricants and maintenance of the fleet.
The report further revealed that about 130 government vehicles procured at a cost of Shs33.9b had engine capacities higher than what was recommended.
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