The Makerere University Council Chairperson represented by the Chairperson Finance, Planning, Administration and Investment Committee (FPAIC) of Council-Mr. Bruce Balaba Kabaasa has called upon Unit heads to ensure a consultative and inclusive budgeting process that is aligned to the objectives of the Third National Development Plan (NDPIII) and Makerere University Strategic Plan (2020-2030). The call was made during the Annual Budget Conference held virtually on 14^th October 2021.

“It is my pleasure to preside over the opening of the Makerere University Budget Conference 2021, for the financial year 2022/2023. I wish to thank the Chairperson of Council Mrs. Lorna Magara who delegated me to perform this duty on her behalf” remarked Mr. Kabaasa.

He noted that the Higher Education sector, just like many other sectors, has been severely disrupted by measures aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 and has as a result suffered from shortfalls in revenue.

“It turns out that we must rethink the methodologies for pursuing our set goals because the new normal demands an urgent shift from business as usual and therefore, the budget being the principal tool for executing the new normal must shift” he pointed out.

The Chair FPAIC added that this year’s budgeting process was more critical than ever before, calling for a balance between realizing the goals and targets of the University Strategic Plan, and ensuring that the planned activities are consistent with operational dynamics occasioned by COVID-19.

He therefore urged the College Principals and Administrative Unit heads to align their budgets to the Budget Call Circular issued by the University Secretary as well as the University Strategic Plan and NDPIII.

“I wish to emphasise that the budgeting must be consultative and inclusive. Consultations must go beyond conferences such as the one we are having today. All stakeholders in given budgeting units must have a chance to contribute towards setting the budget priorities and allocation of funds to those priorities in the respective units” Mr. Kabaasa highlighted.

The Chair FPAIC further requested the budgeting units to involve the relevant Council Committees in the budgeting process right from the onset, as a means of ensuring adherence to set guidelines. He concluded by urging the cost centres to go beyond receiving technical guidance from the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate (GMD) and identify peculiarities within their respective units that respond to the gender and equity requirement and qualify them so as to fit within the regulations while meeting their unique needs.

In her remarks, the Acting Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance & Administration) Dr. Josephine Nabukenya thanked all participants for sparing time to congregate and deliberate on how best to deliver a good budget based on the proposed roadmap. The roadmap for the budget process for Financial Year 2022/2023 is highlighted below.

1. 14^th October 2021 – Stakeholders’ Budget Conference and Sensitisation on the new Budget structure aligned to NDPIII
2. 14^th October 2021 – Communication of the Budget Call Circular and issue of Ceilings to all the Units
3. 19^th October 2021 – Budget Units/Cost Centres Submit their Draft Budgets
4. 20^th October 2021 – Consolidation of University Budget
5. 22^nd and 23^rd October 2021 – The University Budget Committee Retreat
6. 25^th October 2021 – The University Central Management Finance Committee Approval
7. 26^th October 2021 – The University Central Management Committee Approval
8. 28^th October 2021 – The Finance, Planning, Administration and Investment Committee (FPAIC) of Council Approval
9. 5^th November 2021 – University Council Approval
10. 10^th November 2021 – Submission of the Budget Framework Paper and the Consolidated Draft Budget 2022/2023 to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED).

“We have had several meetings in preparation to fulfill this cycle and so far we seem to be progressing very well. We are extremely grateful to the cost centre heads, who have put in time to ensure that they follow the almanac for producing this budget in time” remarked Dr. Nabukenya.

She extended sincere thanks to the Offices of the University Secretary and University Bursar as well as the Planning and Development Unit for all preparations leading up to the Budget Conference. The Acting Vice Chancellor equally acknowledged and thanked the Colleges and Administrative Units that had already made input into the budgeting process, and urged others to make theirs too.

“May I request through this conference that everybody who is supposed to provide input to have this budget process executed successfully do their part and in a timely manner” said the Acting Vice Chancellor.

Earlier while introducing the budget process, the University Secretary (US) Mr. Yusuf Kiranda shared that the University had since receiving the Budget Call Circular from MoFPED on 15^th September been making internal preparations, which included sourcing for the figures that form the basis for budgeting.

“These include projection of student numbers, staffing figures, infrastructure requirements, revenue from various sources including tuition and others, which together guide us on how we will budget” he explained.

The US noted that the conference was organized in compliance with the requirement of Section 9 (i) of the Public Finance Management Act 2015 (as amended), which requires every accounting officer in consultation with relevant stakeholders, to prepare a budget framework paper for the vote, taking into account consideration of balanced development as well as gender and equity responsiveness.

Referring to the Budget Call Circular received from MoFPED, Mr. Kiranda shared the theme for FY 2022/2023 as “Industrialisation for Inclusive Growth, Employment and Wealth Creation”. He also mentioned the budget strategy and priority interventions for the Government of Uganda in FY 2022/2023 as;

1. To mitigate the COVID19 impact on business activity and livelihoods to support the recovery of the economy back to normality by increasing access to capital, revamping health infrastructure and health systems; reducing vulnerabilities and ensuring access to education.
2. To speed up recovery of the economy; to sustain economic growth for socioeconomic transformation through re-prioritizing and delivering impactful investments and restructuring resources/budget to areas with more value for money.
3. To sustain macro-economic stability, peace and security as key foundations for growth and development by keeping exchange rate stability, inflation control, maintaining an adequate reserve of forex; and mitigating emerging internal and external security threats.

Using the Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF) as an example, the US noted that the University can tailor its research to answer to some of the priorities that have clearly defined in the National Budget Strategy 2022/2023.

Presenting the New Budget Structure FY 2022/2023 and implications for budgeting Units, Mr. Kabuye Matia, the Acting Manager Planning and Development informed the conference that the Education Sector has now been designated as a sub-programme under the Human Capital Development programme.

“In the new budget structure, all colleges are going to have three budget outputs namely: teaching and training; research, innovations and technology transfer; and community outreach. When it comes to the support services sub-sub-programme, the new budget structure includes: governance, which entails business of Council and Senate with their sub-committees; general administration and support; academic affairs; library services; contributions to research and international organizations; ICT/e-learning; research, consultancy and publications; students welfare,” explained Mr. Kabuye.

He also noted that under the new normal, emphasis should also be put on how cost centres are to support safe delivery of services. “Every vote should assign a specific department to coordinate the two Government-funded projects i.e. Retooling and Infrastructure Projects.”

The University Bursar, Mr. Evarist Bainomugisha who presented the Budget Performance FY 2019/2020 shared that the University received 98.9% of its approved budget of UGX 363.736 Billion. The proportionate distribution of the University budget expenditure was Wage 58%, Non-wage 38% and Development 4%.

“Collections for last financial year were UGX 69.6 Billion, which was 72% of the budget, and the shortfall is attributed to COVID-19 and the closure of the University resulting in some of the students not paying tuition” explained the Bursar.

In terms of Retooling and Infrastructure Projects, the University completed renovations on the Senate Building, Main Library, Mathematics Building and University Hospital. Ongoing development works include; partitioning of Central Teaching Facility 1, School of Women and Gender Studies Building, the Indoor Stadium, School of Public Health, Department of Dentistry, School of Law, among others.

Delivering the closing remarks, the Conference Programme Manager and Principal, College of Business and Management Sciences, Dr. Eria Hisali thanked participants for sparing time to attend the conference. He urged unit heads to stick to the strategic direction of the University and NDPIII as they finalise the budgeting process.

“It is encouraging to note that all the units derived their own strategic plans from the University Strategic Plan. I wish to assure the Chairperson of Council that we will comply with your guidance as well as the requirements stipulated in the Budget Strategy Paper issued by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development” he concluded.