Rukungiri District Council Presents UGX 59.1 Billion Budget Proposal for 2025/2026

Rukungiri: Rukungiri District Council has presented a budget proposal of UGX 59,148,706,000 for the 2025/2026 financial year, reflecting a 5% decrease from the UGX 62,111,429,000 budget for 2024/2025.

While delivering the Rukungiri District Local Government budget speech on March 27, the Secretary for Finance, Planning, and Administration, Gideon Ntungura, attributed the reduction to the absence of allocations for pension and gratuity arrears, salary arrears, and a cut in microscale irrigation funding.

The district expects to generate UGX 1,237,750,000 as locally raised revenue, with UGX 270,000,000 allocated for non-wage development and UGX 967,750,000 for recurrent non-wage expenses. Additionally, donor funding is projected at UGX 980,000,000, distributed as follows: UNICEF will contribute UGX 250,000,000, the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) will provide UGX 360,000,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) will contribute UGX 250,000,000, and the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS and Malaria will provide UGX 120,000,000.

The proposed funds will be allocated across various departments. The administration sector will receive UGX 9,745,912,000, of which UGX 8,417,696,000 is allocated for higher local government and UGX 1,328,216,000 for lower local governments. The finance department will be allocated UGX 402,627,000, while statutory bodies will receive UGX 918,142,000.

The production and marketing sector will receive UGX 3,333,334,000, while the health sector will be allocated UGX 10,396,146,000. Education will take the largest share with UGX 30,266,837,000, while roads and engineering will receive UGX 2,084,263,000. The water sector will be allocated UGX 651,145,000, natural resources UGX 541,640,000, and community-based services UGX 325,122,000. The planning department will receive UGX 302,149,000, internal audit UGX 58,491,000, and trade, industry, and local development UGX 120,888,000.

During the 2024/2025 financial year, the district approved a budget of UGX 62,118,429,000. However, by the end of the second quarter, only UGX 31,555,244,000 had been received, representing 51% of the total budget. Despite revenue shortfalls, the district recorded several achievements over the past six months.

Ntungura expressed optimism that the district’s budget will increase in the next financial year once the Ministry of Finance reinstates allocations for pension and gratuity arrears, salary arrears, and microscale irrigation funding.

The proposed budget will be reviewed and approved by district councilors in the upcoming council meeting in May, 2025. Ntungura also reminded counselors that the allocations include salaries for civil servants.

CUE IN…..NTUNGURA ON BUDGET//RR//ENG

According to Clerk to Council Trecy Asiimwe, this was the fifth council session of the 2024/2025 financial year.