We must revoke the Donation Budget for Public Offices
By Michael Aboneka As Uganda grapples with budget deficits to ensure effective, adequate service delivery, we are faced with an enigma of donation budgets which is not only morally wrong but is a type of officio corruption as it is a fundamental contradiction to the ethos of transparent and accountable governance. The offices of the President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker are among those that receive the donations Budget. If this is a government policy, why doesn’t the Judiciary have one? It goes without saying that the Executive and the Legislature are more political branches who probably will need this additional cash to advance their political interests in the name of donation. It is also a fallacy, to tell tax payers, that you are donating to them money which money came from them through the taxes they paid. This is problematic because, firstly, allowing public offices to have huge donations budget institutionalizes a culture of patronage, where influence could be bought unde...