The Republic of Uganda - Public Expenditure Review : Report on the Progress and Challenges of Budget Reforms

This PER emphasizes the importance of the government and its development partners developing a systematic program and a sequenced approach to address identified concerns to allow Uganda to achieve macrostability, fiscal sustainability, and poverty reduction. The report is organized in seven chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the macro challenges Uganda faces and how these are linked to fiscal considerations. Macrostability has largely been achieved with satisfactory growth rates higher than in the previous year. But the unprecedented terms of trade shock has resulted in the decline of total receipts from exports. The reduction of foreign exchange revenues in combination with lower revenue collections has led to fiscal constraints. Chapter 2 notes the need to ensure stakeholder contribution to the budget process and to improve quality of budget planning, choices, and predictability. Chapter 3 analyzes the health, education, and water and sanitation sectors and describes the great progress made in aloocative efficiency --although these sectors are experiencing major challenges in achieving operational efficiency. Chapter 4 discusses how the government has "commitment control systems (CCSs)" to address the problem of arrears. Chapter 5 identifies how Uganda uses tracking systems to identify problems in flow of funds. Chapter 6 discusses the growing challenges for budget preparation, execution, and monitoring at the local government level. Chapter 7 draws conclusions.