The Budget Process

Every year the Minister of Finance makes a speech to Parliament explaining the budget for the following year. But well before this the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is working on agreeing the budget numbers across government.

In fact, there is a long budget process which has multiple stages - the most significant being the Budget Framework, the Draft Budget and the Approved Budget. Every year three budget books are produced at the central government level for each of these phases.  You can find the books in the library. 

• Volume 1 contains the budgets for the central government votes.
• Volume 2 contains the budgets on the central government’s support to the local government votes. (The local government budgets themselves are published separately.) 
• Volume 3 contains the budgets for applicable State Owned enterprises and Public Corporations. 

The budget process is only part of the story, however.  Once the budgets have been set government is required to report performance against them throughout the year.  You can find the reports in the library. 

• Quarterly reports
• Annual reports
• Audited Financial Statements

Finally, don't forget that in addition to the national publications, each municipality and district produces their own budget book. These show how locally raised revenues and transfers from the central government are programmed.  Also available in the library. 

What is a budget?

The budget is an estimate of national income and expenditure for a year. It’s a promise to send resources to pay for specific services and outputs across the Government of Uganda, and to raise those resources responsibly.

The budget is important because it's a lot of money!  The Government spends around 14% of GDP in Uganda on key services for the whole population. The priorities the government sets, the promises it makes through the budget, and the government’s performance against the budget, have an important effect on the services you receive.