In a powerful address that set the tone for the national budgeting process, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi, announced a major crackdown on dishonest and inefficient fiscal practices.
At the National Budget Conference for the Financial Year 2026/27 held on Thursday at Speke Resort in Munyonyo, which was officiated by the Prime Minister Hon. Robinah Nabbanja, Ggoobi laid bare a list of ‘budget games’ played by government entities, declaring that a new era of strict fiscal discipline is underway to improve budget credibility and enhance service delivery for all Ugandans.
A Culture of Deceptive Budgeting
Ggoobi’s remarks highlighted a pervasive issue that has long plagued the national budget cycle. He itemised 15 different deceptive practices, ranging from simple padding to complex manipulation.
These “budget games”, he said, “are tactics used by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to secure more funding than they require, often at the expense of genuine national priorities.”
According to Ggoobi, the most prominent games identified include:
Padding Play: Requesting more than is actually needed, which President Kaguta Museveni locally refers to as ‘Enjawulo’.
The Crisis Card: Claiming catastrophic outcomes if a budget request is not fulfilled.
Selling the Sizzle: Using flashy presentations with little substance to make a request seem attractive.
Pet Project Play: Aligning budget requests with a powerful policymaker’s personal priorities.
The Mandate Masquerade: Using an MDA’s legal mandate as the sole justification for a budget request, ignoring financial limits.
The Foot-in-the-Door: Starting with a small, seemingly benign request and then incrementally expanding it over time.
Plan Low, Mid-year Grow: Underestimating initial costs for a project and forcing the government to provide more funds later to complete it, such as requesting money to build classrooms without including funds for furniture or teacher salaries.
New Era of Fiscal Discipline and Accountability
In a clear warning to all government accounting officers, Ggoobi stated that these practices will no longer be tolerated. He stressed that to combat the games, the Ministry of Finance has tasked its Budget Analysts with stepping up scrutiny and analysis of all requests.
He noted that the new budget strategy dictates a clear order of financial prioritisation for all government entities as follows:
Government of Uganda Obligations: Funding all commitments made by the government as a first call on available resources.
Statutory Obligations: Prioritising salaries, wages, pensions, and gratuities.
Fixed Costs: Ensuring essential utilities, rent, and other fixed expenses are covered.
Core Business/Functions: Finally, funding the essential operations and core mandates of the MDAs.
This rigorous approach, Ggoobi explained, is designed to reduce the frequent need for supplementary budget requests and improve the overall credibility of the national budget.
Guiding a Strategic National Vision
The upcoming budget for FY 2026/27 is framed within a broader, more ambitious national vision. Ggoobi reiterated that the Budget Strategy is guided by the President’s Tenfold Growth Strategy and the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV).
He highlighted that this new focus on fiscal discipline is a fundamental step toward achieving those long-term goals by ensuring that every shilling is spent efficiently and contributes directly to socio-economic transformation.
As Uganda gears up for the January 2026 National General Elections, the budget strategy will also need to be flexible enough to incorporate emerging policy directions.
Ggoobi concluded by saying that the First Budget Call Circular for FY 2026/27, which the Ministry of Finance will issue, will provide all government entities with the detailed policy and operational guidelines needed to prepare their budgets in line with this new, non-negotiable standard of accountability.
The message, Ggoobi emphasised, is clear: the era of “budget games” is over. The focus is now squarely on discipline, transparency, and results.