This annual report FY17/18 coincides with the final year of the Public Financial Management Reform that spanned from (July 2014-June 2018). It therefore marks the end of third phase of reform implementation with the coming financial year (FY18/19) only being regarded as an interim and preparatory year to bring closure to any pending contracts and activities. Indeed, this financial year marked the beginning of one such activity: the drafting of a new PFM reforms strategy to guide the direction of future reforms from July 2018 – June 2023. This process, expected to flow into the coming year, will require systematic reflection on lessons learnt from previous implementation phases. Also this will be backed by consultative and methodical diagnosis of the emerging problem areas in the PFM eco-system starting with the recently completed PEFA analysis.

Closely related, has been the progress registered in the development a medium term revenue strategy,
the National Domestic Revenue Strategy (2019 – 2023) whose ultimate goal is to increase Uganda’s tax
to GDP ratio to 16 percent by the end of that period from the current 14 per cent. The process has been
consultative with involvement of Civil Society (CSBAG) in the DRM Working Group and has benefited
with DP support particularly with facilitation of technical diagnostics such as the tax gap analysis (by
IMF), monitoring frameworks for tax and non-tax revenue (under FINMAP), to mention but a few. It is expected that the constructive collaboration between MoFPED and URA exhibited in this process will be
deepened and leveraged upon as the springboard for successes envisioned. The launch of the Strategy is on course for December 2018.

In a special way, I wish to commend the consistent funding contribution and dedication of the basket
modality partners: KfW, DFiD, Denmark, Norway and the European Union. Over the years, this funding
modality has yielded benefits that echo the recommendations of the Paris/Accra Agenda for effective
foreign assistance principles of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, mutual accountability and managing
for results through use and improvement of local systems.
Chief among the aspirations of the Gou and her partners this financial year was the strengthening
of the public procurement policy framework through the various strategic amendments to the Public
Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act, 2003. These were approved by Cabinet and
the first draft Bill was prepared by the First Parliamentary Council for discussion with key stakeholders.

The Bill aims at enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in the Public Procurement process by reducing
the statutory timelines and the number of administrative players in the Administrative Review process.
During the year, Government was able to further extend the Programme Based Budgeting reforms to
local governments. This represented the second phase of the initiative, the first having been piloted in
the previous year, FY15/16, by focusing on Central Government entities. As with all reforms to date,
the initial experiences were mixed as votes acclimatized themselves with the new system. Subsequent
phases of the reforms, taking from lessons, will be focused on further change management and training
to entrench the principles of programme based budgeting across all votes.