With this reform Government aimed at shifting from output Based Budgeting which had no direct link between allocations and expected outputs. We are glad that by the FY 2016/17, the PBB approach came into use. The budget performance reports were more focused on physical and budget performance with little or no regard to expected outcome.
Reporting for most MDAs was more on routine activities like payment of contractors (on 2 seed schools in Kyenjojo and Rubirizi) and clearing of arrears, celebrating international days as opposed to strategic level budget achievements that impact quality of service delivery
Key to Program Based Budgeting sought to replace the then ‘Output Based Budgeting’ that had exhibited weaknesses including: instances of mixup of outputs and processes as illustrated in various Ministries Departments and Agencies’ budget documents. The other weakness was the absence of a well-defined system to enforce accountability.
It further hindered MDAs capacity constraints in policy implementation and preparation of results based on sector strategic frameworks and linkages to the budget.
Low commitment of Government to set medium term fiscal framework (aggregate resource envelope) financing continues to affect effective sector implementation in the medium term.