TITLE:
Uganda’s Fiscal Policy (2000-2016): Implications for Public Investment Management (PIM)
AUTHORS:
Asumani Guloba
KEYWORDS:
Fiscal Policy, Public Expenditure, Public Investment
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.8 No.3,
March
14,
2018
ABSTRACT: Uganda has recently pursued expansionary
fiscal policies, driven by the desire to improve the country’s infrastructure,
increase the production of assets, and facilitate accelerated growth.
Nevertheless, providing more resources for capital development in line with the
country development aspirations alone will not necessarily translate in optimal
infrastructure investments. A question that arises is, what comes first:
Is it to invest in the effort to establish effective systems for managing
public investment in order to yield high returns or should financing these
investments precede capacity challenges. Using a rich dataset of public sector
projects defined by project, financing mix, sector etc; the paper carries out
project absorptive capacity and overall fiscal trend analysis to ascertain
whether budgeted projects translated to intended outturns. It is found that
weak Public Investment capacity has led to less than budgeted public investment
outturn which has reduced intended fiscal policy impact. As such, for Uganda to
achieve its fiscal objectives there is need to balance its expansionary fiscal
policies with the ability to absorb fiscal resources.