A group of civil society organizations under their umbrella body, the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) have appealed to the government to increase funding to public agencies tasked with fighting corruption.

According to the activists, the government needs to step up the war on corruption, in the wake of the Karamoja iron sheets scandal.

The activists appealed during a press briefing in Ntinda, Kampala as they gave their perspectives on the ministerial policy statements that have been presented to Parliament.

Different Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government have presented to Parliament ministerial policy statements indicating their budget priorities for the 2023/2024 financial year, as provided in Section 9, Clause 3 of the Public Finance Management Act.

A group of civil society organizations under their umbrella body, the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) have come out with a number of concerns on the ministerial policy statements.

Carol Namagembe, the Deputy Executive Director of CSBAG called for national standard pricing which she noted will help in the fight against corruption.

She commended the government for the measures taken to fight corruption but noted that a lot more still needs to be done to strengthen the government agencies tasked with fighting corruption by allocating them more funds in the 2023/2024 financial year. According to Namagembe, the corrupt seem to be getting bolder and there is a need to crack the whip hard.

The civil society activists also appealed to the Ministry of Finance to address what they called insufficient budgetary allocations to clear domestic arrears, rising public debt, and inadequate funding of the Local Government Finance Commission.

Other concerns include high public expenditure, huge budget cuts on gender interventions and social development, and addressing the implementation challenges in the Parish Development Model (PDM), among others.

The Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group commended the government for taking measures to revamp the economy, which has seen a drop in inflation, and maintaining the Central Bank Rate (CBR) at 10%, among other positive steps.

Cathy