Gov’t agencies abusing BUBU policy– says Private Sector

The Private Sector Foundation (PSFU) has said several civil servants at Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) are taking advantage of loopholes within the policy to abuse the Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) initiative.

The BUBU policy is an initiative of the government through the trade ministry meant to promote the consumption or usage of locally originating products.

While delivering his remarks at the PSFU Post Budget Dialogue in Kampala on June 24, the Chairman, Policy Advocacy Committee at PSFU Rajesh Chaplot noted that the finance ministry through the budget procedure needs to amend these flaws in BUBU.

“Many MDAs are giving procurement orders to companies which are registered in Uganda irrespective of the fact that they are importing 100% of goods and services from outside Uganda and it’s still called the BUBU supply. This needs to be handled in the budgetary processes,” he said.

BUBU was developed out of the demand by the private sector especially manufacturers to expand the domestic market for local products.

While commenting on the budget for this fiscal year, former agriculture minister Victoria Sekitoleko noted that the government needs to work with the private sector if the Parish Development Model (PDM) is to succeed.

“The parishes are already there and they are doing something. Whatever policy we go in with; we should consider what they are already doing instead of going in and behaving like the parish has just arrived. Let us respect what is there and grow onto that,” she said.

PSFU chairman Elly Karuhanga noted that: “The PDM is going to stimulate a lot of agriculture. However, it’s the private sector that knows how to turn sh1 into sh2. But I see the PDM being launched by our political leaders, ministers, and legislators. You can see that there is no private sector membership on those committees. I hope this issue will be addressed.”

During the budget reading on June 14, finance minister Matia Kasaija noted that the full implementation of the PDM will accelerate the transition of the 39% of households still engaged in the subsistence economy into the money economy.

For the financial year ending June 2022, sh234b was provided for the implementation of the PDM. For the fiscal year 2022/23, the government has provided a total of sh1trillion for full implementation of the model.

Each of the 10,594 parishes in the country will receive sh100m as a revolving fund, earmarked for the purchase of agricultural inputs by households still in subsistence.