News 

Saturday, June 21, 2014 

All budgets good on paper until implementation

Editor,

Permit me to make a general comment on the national budgets read out recently.

Unlike many of my friends, I do not get excited about national budgets. The reason is that most sound very good when read out, but implementation is always a problem. We tend not to live up to the words of the documents.

I have no quarrel with governments willing to spend on impressive projects. My problem is the quality of that expenditure. We still have to tackle the issue of ‘value for money’.

As along as political leaders and technocrats do not respect tax payers’ money and instead use it as a tool for self interests, no real development can occur. We will continue to have shoddy structures and squables over contract awards. Maintenance bills will always be high, because initial spending was not fully committed. You cannot have growth as long as we keep cheating ourselves.

James Mukasa

Kampala, Uganda

By James Mukasa, Saturday, June 21st, 2014