‘Focus On Priorities And Save Money’- Museveni Bans Civil Servants, MPs From Travelling Abroad
By Uganda Online Media
President Museveni has banned Members of Parliament, civil servants, and politicians from traveling abroad to save money for other priority sectors.
According to Museveni, external traveling is a waste of money yet there are other sectors that badly need the money adding that the ministry of Finance needs to prioritize the most important sectors such as oil and gas that will generate billions of money for the economy and asked them to ban travel abroad and internal allowances.
“Some of them just want money to travel abroad. Tell the civil servants, the MPs, and all politicians to stop traveling abroad. Money is wasted on external travel and here Kigumba is crying for money. This is really poor planning,” Museveni said.
“So how can you say that you lack Shs8b per year, which I think is $2m, in order to earn $7b from the oil sector? It is not lack of money, but lack of planning by the Ministry of finance foresight, and wisdom and all that. How can you fail to plan to save money in order to get more money in a very short time?, allowance inside Uganda, we can freeze all those and do this as we have done previously”, he added.
Museveni made the comments while commissioning facilities at Uganda Petroleum Institute-Kigumba (UPIK) in Kiryandongo District on Saturday noting that he was not happy to learn that the institute does not have enough funding to become a fully-fledged institute.
The President described the institute as one of the “lucrative projects” that is bound to generate billions of dollars for the country in a few years to come thus adding that investment in such an institution is critical.
Museveni who praised the World Bank for its assistance in raising the institution’s facilities and standards, could not help but accuse government planners of failing to give Kigumba Petroleum Institute financing priority given the importance of the institution.
Museveni noted that if people in charge of planning had given Kigumba priority, the 32 billion invested in the institute could have been obtained locally adding that the government should always prioritize investing in lucrative projects that will generate billions of dollars for the country in the few years to come.
Museveni outcry was also re-echoed by UPIK principal, Bernard Ongodia, who outlined a number of issues that are impeding the operation of the institution, most of them revolving around low funding.
Ongodia noted that since its inception in 2010, the institution has experienced a significant dwindling in funding from a budget of 8.6 billion shillings to 2.7 billion shillings yet the implementation of their Physical Master plan is slightly over 50 progress.
He added that due to this, several infrastructure projects have stalled for years. The principal also pointed to other problems including; inadequate equipment, water supply, and power outages that not only increase our costs of operation by running a Generator constantly but also damage the few available pieces of equipment.
“Constrained cash flows have some ramifications in our preparations as we position ourselves to produce enough Technicians before ‘First Oil’ and beyond…Additional Workshop equipment necessary to upgrade to the training of level three (3) Technicians and Apprenticeship,” Ongodia said
Ongodia further tasked the government to streamline the institute’s funding mechanism and also increase the staff’s remuneration which he said is having a negative impact on staff retention because experienced and knowledgeable trainers are being drawn to the oil industry by large salaries.
Located in Kiryandongo District, UPIK is currently the only institution in the country with international accreditation in oil and gas courses in the region and was established in 2010 a few years after Uganda had discovered oil resources in Albertine Graben.
The Government-owned institution is the country’s center for training, research, and consultancy in the field of petroleum exploration, recovery, refinement, and responsible utilization of Oil and Gas Resources.
In 2020, the Ministry of Education secured a loan to upgrade facilities at the Institute to provide first-rate training in the oil and gas sectors. the upgrade has seen the construction and equipping of five workshops namely; mechanical workshop, electrical, perturbed operations workshop, instrumentation workshop and wielding fabrication, pipe fitting, and material testing laboratories.
Other facilities constructed included a four-storied multipurpose block, 1.2 kilometers of road within the campus, sewage treatment plant among others. In the meantime, Uganda is not on the proper road to generate the necessary personnel for the oil and gas sector, according to Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni noted that with the installed facilities, Uganda is not on the proper road to generate the necessary personnel for the oil and gas sector.
However, she issued a challenge to the institute’s personnel and administration to treat the facilities and equipment provided to them with care so that they can use it for the intended purpose.
