Apart from the Speaker of Parliament of Uganda, many other government bosses are swimming in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) allocation, this publication has discovered.
The CSR cash bonanza has attracted the public’s attention in the wake of the ongoing online campaign on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), dubbed #UgandaParliamentExhibition where parliament’s financial excesses have been cast into the spotlight.
The Speaker’s name has since appeared prominently in high finance.
A query that has featured prominently is the money deposited on personal accounts of some of parliament’s junior staff on behalf of Speaker Anita Among’s activities dubbed Corporate social responsibility (CSR).
CSR is a strategy undertaken by companies not just to grow profits, but also to take an active and positive social role in the world around them.
The term is also associated with the related term corporate citizenship.
We have now learnt that it is not only the Speaker’s office that has a huge CSR budget; even other government institutions have got.
We are told President Museveni advised these government institutions including parliament to stop direct involvement in every fundraising but instead have a specific budget to cater for that under CSR arrangement.
With the President’s directive, there are more public offices with a larger purse that enjoy similar or worse expenditure patterns on CSR and community outreach programs.
The Speaker’s office is allocated Shs 3.6 billion.
The State House is allocated Shs 59 billion to spend annually on community outreach programs which is exhausted before a supplementary envelope is dispatched by parliament.
The President alone himself spends Shs. 77 billion. The Vice President spends (Shs. 4.2 billion). The Prime Minister spends (Shs. 3.7 billion) and her deputies (Shs 954 million each). Government Chief Whip spends (Shs 1.8 billion). The Deputy Speaker spends (Shs 1.8 billion) while the National Council for Sports spends (Shs. 2 billion) and so many others.
According to sources, it has been a norm for CSR funds to be dispensed in cash because anticipated recipients are not itemized in the government electronic payment system known as EFMIS.
“This money is normally given out in cash. The way you always see President Museveni giving out cash in envelopes. You have seen PM Nabbanja, VP Alupo all doing so,” a source clarified.
We are told the Speaker has been doing the same and most of the beneficiaries (churches, women’s groups, individuals, and others) are not on IFMIS.
The reason why it can’t go through government financial systems like EFMIS is because of the nature of beneficiaries, sources say.
“This explains why this money is withdrawn from the bank by parliament staff on behalf of the Speaker and then given out in cash to various beneficiaries and it is always accounted for at the end,” emphasized an insider at Parliament.
Most of the beneficiaries under the Speaker’s CSR budget have been churches, mosques, schools, and women’s groups among others.
Sources tell us that these cash bonanzas dubbed as CSR have benefited over 300 MPs who occasionally present personal and constituency-related financial issues.
All these CSR monies to various government institutions are properly budgeted and approved by parliament.
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