The Government has been given sh18.5b ($5m) as an advance payment for 18 million doses of AstraZeneca to start vaccinating at least 9 million vulnerable Ugandans against Covid-19 early next month and another sh10.465b to the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) to cater for additional costs to conduct national exams under the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, Parliament put on hold the request citing multiple inconsistencies in a section of the requests that could cost taxpayers colossal sums of money.
The bone of contention was on sh12b that the Ministry of Lands had requested for to compensate absentee landlords in Buyaga- Kibale and Sheema districts that had not been verified by the Uganda Land Commission.
However, the budget committee vice chairperson Patrick Opolot, told Parliament that the impasse between the Uganda Land Commission and the Ministry of Lands had been resolved and the former had acknowledged the list of the beneficiaries in the compensation.
Some of the land compensation beneficiaries on the list include Kasiya Rwabukurukuru with land at Kiyunga, Sheema (sh6.43b), Stephen Peter Nagenda of Kibale, Rwanswa (sh1.06 b), Julius Busuulwa of Buyaga, Kibaale (sh1.4b).
Others are Natalia Namuli (sh1.6b), Yisaka Lwakana (sh125.3m) and Mugisha Geofrey sSh1.49 b) all with land at Buyaga.
Parliament also cleared sh7.6b meant to compensate Dodoviko Mwanje and Medard Kiconco who will each get sh3.8b as compensation for their land in Ndeeba on which St. Peters Church of Uganda stood before demolition and Lusanja, Mprerewe in Wakiso district where thousands of families were evicted, respectively.
The sh292b supplementary also included purchasing of Covid-19 face masks sh31b, Sh28b for ambulances, and clearing of debt worth sh43b for the Biometric Voter Verification System (BVVS) for the just concluded general elections.
In December last year, the finance ministry laid before Parliament a supplementary expenditure request amounting to sh94.32b but the request kept growing exponentially.
The ministry filled addendums to the request amounting to sh111.477b and another Sh86.597b.
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