The Committee on Trade, Tourism and Industry has expressed concern over gaps and inconsistencies in the Ministerial Policy Statement presented by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives for the Financial Year 2026/2027.
During a meeting chaired by Hon. Boniface Okot, on Wednesday, 25 March 2026 the Committee cited failure by the Ministry to comply with key legal and procedural requirements, describing the document submitted to Parliament in February 2026 as incomplete and lacking critical supporting information.
Okot noted that the policy statement contravenes Section 12 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), which outlines the mandatory contents of ministerial policy statements. He highlighted that several statutory requirements were not met, including the absence of vehicle utilisation reports and asset registers for entities under the Ministry and certificate on gender and equity.
The Committee also raised concern over missing budgetary projections for the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), questioning how Parliament is expected to undertake effective scrutiny of the Ministry’s budget without such essential details.
“There are multiple entities existent in one policy statement presented in House but are lacking in the one presented to the committee, this is how grave the matter is,” Okot said.
Members further observed discrepancies between documents submitted to Parliament during plenary and those presented to the Committee. While some versions included budget figures, they lacked the necessary supporting documentation to justify allocations.
“The effect of these gaps is that we cannot, for instance discuss your recruitment budget when there are no recruitment plans. There are dozens of issues that if we do not address them now, we will have a real confusion in the financial year,” said Hon. Abudlhu Byakatonda, Workers MP.
Bwamba County MP, Hon. Richard Gafabusa, criticised what he described as a growing misconception among some government entities that Parliament does not thoroughly scrutinise documents.
He questioned why a Ministry supported by technical staff would fail to adequately prepare such a critical document within the required timeframe.
The Committee directed the Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Industry), Hon. David Bahati, to take responsibility for correcting the errors.
“What we are trying to do is to guard ourselves from being involved in irregular processes. We ask that there is respect for this committee. When we find such documents in our committees, even the one you consider perfect has imperfections. If tomorrow you are allowed to table the statement again and it has eminent errors, you will have set a bad precedence,” Okot said.
Bahati apologised to the Committee attributing the shortcomings to a mix-up of documents. He assured Members that the Ministry would present a revised and compliant policy statement.
“The latest document has all requirements apart from the certificate of equal opportunities. We want to apologise and promise that when we are scheduled for the next meeting we will present a proper document,” Bahati said.
