PRUDENCE IN MANAGING COMMITTEE

BUDGETS VIS ‘A VIS PLANNED ACTIVITIES

AND FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS.

Hon. Sebuliba Mutumba, Deputy Chairperson,

Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities
and State Enterprises/MP Kawempe Division South
12/13/2010
 INTRODUCTION

Planning can be defined as;

• An organized, conscious and continual attempt to select the
best available alternatives to achieve specific goals.
(ALBERT WATERSTON, 1965) or
 
• The application of scientific methods to policy making or
(FALUDI, 1983)

• A process for determining appropriate future action

through a sequence of choices (DAVIDOFF AND REINER,
1983)
 WHY PLANNING?
• Planning is carried out at various levels in order to;

• Reduce uncertainty

• Integrate some rational methods and technologies into the problem

solving process and decision making process
• Provide the chance and blue print to control and monitor the Committee
efforts from time to time.
• Increase participation from the Members on decision making, at least
widening the horizon of the Committee exponents and;
• Mobilize resources and allocation.
 ELEMENTS OF PLANNING:

Planning involves 8 major elements namely;

1. Goals
2. Priority and objectives
3. Time frame
4. Constraints
5. Capital and resources, and its allocations
6. Implementation policies and strategies
7. Implementing agencies and human resources
8. Monitoring, evaluation and control mechanism
 BUDGET AND BUDGETING

• A budget is a plan of action matched by resources

required to implement the plan.
• A Budget can also be defined as an estimation of the
revenues and expenses over a specified future period
of time
• Budgets are an element of an organization’s financial
management;
• As a common organizational element, budgets emerge
from the goals and objectives of institutions and
directly support the mission statement, goals and
objectives of the organization/institution.
 The purpose of budgeting;

• Budgeting is done as a means to control

public/private funds and accountability to
public/private authorities.
 Role of budgets

• Budgets direct everything a

government/institution does. Their processes
arbitrate over the allocation of scarce
resources among the competing demands of
agencies whose business it is to see public
needs fulfilled
 A budget is a plan that sets out;

• The objectives and strategies of the Government/institution in a budget

year

• The programmes and activities that would be carried out to execute the
Strategies to achieve the overall objectives,

• The respective objectives of these programmes and activities that reflect

The disaggregation of the overall objectives of government/institutions

• The resources allocated across these programmes and activities

• Performance targets; in a timely and cost-effective manner that would

need to be achieved to meeting the sub-objectives and, thereby, the
overall objectives of the institution
 Characteristics of a good Budget

• Transparency and accountability

• Comprehensiveness of budget
• Predictability of resources & policies
• Flexibility
• Existence and sharing of information
 BACKGROUND

• In the Parliament of Uganda, Committee budgets have

been decentralized to specific Committees where by they
are managed and controlled by Committee Chairpersons in
close consultation with the Clerk to Parliament who is the
designated accounting officer of the institution.

• Note that budgets should be managed by determining

objectives based on overall goals and close cooperation
between a Chairperson and his/her technical staff (Clerk,
Researcher, Budget Officer or Legal Counsel).

• Further still the actual expenditures of the budget should

be accounted for and assessed for effectiveness.
Obstacles to budget decision making;

1. Lack of goal clarity

2. Confusion of the Committee interest with that
of Chairpersons, Members, or Technical staff
3. Rigid conservatism (in the sense of strict
adherence to rules, procedures, and past
practices)
4. Separation of Planning from Management;-
 Obstacles Cont’d
Committee planning methodologies have distinguished
the planners of activities from the Committee
administrators. The former have been seen as high-
powered analysts, politicians whose 'Tools became
their power' while the latter have been classified as
mere Implementers who only need to follow the Plan.

This has led to an underestimation of the contribution

of good management to Committee performance and
of the complexity of creating management capacity.
 Weaknesses in Budget Execution that may
hinder planned priorities from being realized.
• The cash-based payments system in operation in
Parliament is a major constraint to effective
service delivery. Increasingly, budget execution
has suffered from delays and an unpredictable
release of funds due to cash constraints. This
undermines operational planning and leads to
the build-up of work overload. The system is also
plagued by deficiencies in the reporting systems,
resulting in a weak control environment and
increasing opportunities for corruption.
 Weaknesses Cont’d
• Limited Committee discretion, in particular
the inability of Committees to reallocate
spending across line items in response to
emerging needs.

• Provincial discretion regarding execution,

which may differ from agreed and approved
allocations.
 Benefits accruing from Budgeting
• Budgeting being an essential tool to translate
abstract or general plans into specific action
oriented goals and objectives by adhering to
the budgetary guidelines; the expectation is
that the identified goals and objectives can be
fulfilled.
 Benefits cont’d
• Budgeting communicates the expected
outcomes and provides detailed scripts to
coordinate all of the specific activities to work
in tandem hence achieving the Committee
mandate.
• The budget provides the benchmarks against
which to judge success or failure in reaching
goals and objectives and facilitates timely
corrective measures.
 Benefits Cont’d
• Budgeting provides for allocation
responsibilities hence introducing the concept
of "responsibility accounting."  Under this
concept, Committees are held accountable for
transactions and activities under their direct
influence and control. This philosophy pushes
the budget down to a personal level, and
mitigates attempts to pass blame to others. 
 Benefits Cont’d
• The budget process is the device by which the
greater goals are mutually agreed upon, and the
budget reflects the specific game plan that is to
be followed in striving to reach these goals.
• Budgets are also instrumental in identifying
constraints and bottlenecks.
• The budget is a basis for financial accountability
and transparency. When everyone can see how
much should have been spent and received, they
can ask informed questions about discrepancies.
Challenges faced in carrying out Committee
Planned activities against Financial Transactions
• Difficulty in planning for activities which arise as a
result of directives from the Floor of the House to
Committees.
• Uncertainty when planning for Committee
activities as Committee allocations follow no
particular pattern.
• Unexplained budget cuts to Committee funds
• Risk of self-referentiality- In this case, the budget
controllers may fail to recognize that their
individual needs are subservient to the larger
institutional/Committee goals.
• Discrepancies between the allocated budget and
the Committee ambitions and workloads.
• Some planned activities turn out to be more
demanding in terms of resources than earlier
planned.
• In the event of budget cuts over the course of the
year, line item categories tend to be affected
across-the-board, without differentiating to
protect planned activities.
 Challenges Cont’d
• Delays in approving planned activities’
budgets is a big challenge, as Committees fail
to perform planned activities on time due to
unavailability of the signatory in this instance,
Chairpersons who may by nature of their roles
and responsibilities be out of the work station.
 RECOMMENDATIONS

• Funds to cover activities which arise as a result of

directives from the Floor of the House to Committees
should be sourced from the general pool.
• Committee Chairpersons should be consulted before
cuts to Committee budgets are done.
• In order to curb self-referentiality, budget data should
be available on both allocations and execution to the
Committee.
• There should be effective communication between the
Committee technocrats and the Committee leadership.
 Recommendations Cont’d
• In the case of discrepancy between the allocated budget and the
Committee ambitions and workloads, Committee funds should be
allocated according to the activities the Committee intends to carry
out.
• There’s need to ensure that Committee policy decisions and
financing are consistent with the Committee mandate. This
demarcation should further be consistent with the comparative
advantages of the Committees, given their respective associations
with Government departments and sectors.
• Priority activities should be more fully defined and should be
consistent with the existing programs already identified under
priorities before embarking on resource allocations. This should be
complemented by other kinds of analysis, including cost-benefit
analysis.
 Recommendations Cont’d
• The priority criteria should further be used to guide
capital spending as this will increase the transparency
and accountability of Committee resource allocations
against executed expenditures.
• Guidelines should be developed drawing clarity to how
priority activities and expenditures will be protected
during execution in the face of revenue shortfalls.
• The need to build capacity within Committees through
training and skills upgrading, for Members as well as
technical staff should not be ignored if Committees are
to realize to their full potential in the oversight roles
and to undertake relevant analytical work.
 CONCLUSION

• Prudence in the management of Committee

budgets vis a’vis planned activities and
financial transactions should be unprecedented
in its openness and transparency, and should
have a strong focus on results, in order to be
able to be used to align the substantial external
resources which the Parliament receives from
donor partners.
• However for successful implementation of the budgets
vis a’vis planned activities, full engagement of all
Committee Members’ is critical, unlike the current
arrangement, whereby procedurally development and
approval of financing of Committee activities falls
solely to the Chairperson.
• On the other hand monitoring and consultations with
Committee Members is a very promising avenue to
address a number of the key weaknesses that have
been identified in this paper.
• Further still, transparency should be ensured
when dealing with Committee funds. This is
specific to allocation and utilization
Committee funds.
• Finally in order for Committee budgets vis
a’vis planned activities and financial
transactions to become more meaningful,
there is need for a more predictable flow of
funds, so as to allow the various Committees
plan and schedule activities, and to ensure
that operating and maintenance requirements
are estimated and allocated together with
capital funding decisions for the effective and
efficient execution of their mandate
Thank you!