AYV News, May 28, 2025
Staff Members of the Parliamentary Budget Office of the Uganda Parliament have paid a courtesy call on the cross-section of the leadership of Sierra Leone Parliament in conjunction with their study visit and knowledge sharing engagement with the Parliamentary Budget Office of Sierra Leone Parliament.
Welcoming the delegation, the Rt. Hon. Speaker Segepoh Solomon Thomas expressed thrilling excitement for receiving the officers from the Uganda Parliament. Speaker Thomas accorded a red carpet welcome to the delegation and encouraged them to feel at home during their stay for the study visit and knowledge sharing experience with the Sierra Leone Parliament. He said Africans are the same people, nonetheless, the geographical partition of the continent. Speaker Thomas used the opportunity to send a goodwill message to the Speaker of the Uganda Parliament and the President of Uganda. The Rt. Hon. The speaker concluded by expressing vehement optimism that together, Africa would achieve its emancipation, and the continent would be a united sovereign state one day.
In his address, the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh expressed the importance of such a knowledge-sharing visitation. The Deputy Speaker also acknowledged that the visitation of Officers from the Uganda Parliament is a collaborative step in ensuring that they revamp the economy of Africa. He assured the delegation that they would be able to learn a lot from the Sierra Leone Parliamentary Budget Office, as they had supported and capacitated that department. He elucidated that the Parliamentary Budget Office is tasked with the responsibility to provide economic advice to the Leadership of Parliament. He also made it explicitly clear to the delegation that the Parliamentary Budget Office of Sierra Leone is not bound by any political party directive.
The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Daniel Koroma welcomed the delegation to the Sierra Leone Parliament. He assured the delegation that the leadership of parliament is opened for further interaction during their days in Sierra Leone. He furthered that despite the variation of Political Parties, in Parliament, they only had one head, which is the speaker. He concluded by wishing the delegation well in their study tour to the Sierra Leone Parliament.
The Head of the Uganda Delegation who doubles as the Principal Economist of the Uganda Parliament Gladys Janet Mataka, referenced Article 164 (3) of the Uganda Constitution which mandates their Parliament to monitor all expenditure of public funds and Section 12 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 enjoined Uganda’s Parliament to analyse policies and programs that affects the economy in general and the budget in particular, where necessary.
She continued that Section 21 of the Budget Act, 2001 mandates the Parliamentary Budget Office of Uganda to provide Parliament and its Committees with technical support in order to exercise their legislative and oversight role.
To achieve this, she said the PBO of Uganda is continuously building the capacity of staff members in order to proactively render the much-needed technical support.
“Consequently, we have identified the Parliamentary Budget Office of your national Assembly as the institution we can share experience and knowledge regarding,” she stated and went on to say “Alignment of Planning and Budgeting, Fiscal Sustainability, Performance-Based Budgeting, Processing of Finance Bills, Budget Office tools, and frameworks for analysis and reporting of outputs”.
According to her, they understand that the Sierra Leone Parliamentary Budget Office has built expertise in those areas, and their Parliamentary Budget Office is in the process of building staff capacity in these areas and wishes to draw lessons from the Sierra Leone experience.
