This paper investigates the evolution and accounting of Uganda’s public administration expenditure from 1960 to 2009, a period marked by profound political and economic transitions. Combining fiscal data reconstruction, archival budget reports, and interviews with former officials, we trace how successive regimes—from the post-independence government through the Amin era, the turbulent 1980s, and the National Resistance Movement’s reformist period—altered the size, composition, and reporting of administrative spending.

1960–1970: Cautious budgeting under the East African Currency Board limited administrative costs to roughly one-fifth of recurrent outlays.

1971–1985: Institutional collapse and hyperinflation eroded real expenditure even as off-budget military and patronage allocations proliferated.

1986–1995: Stabilisation and donor-funded reforms doubled the nominal administrative budget while new accounting codes and the creation of the Uganda Revenue Authority improved transparency.

1996–2009: Decentralisation, civil service retrenchment, and program-based budgeting shifted spending toward local governments and service delivery units, yet aggregate administrative costs remained stubbornly high at 20–30% of recurrent expenditure.

Accounting reforms:

We further show that the introduction of cash-budgeting in the 1990s, the adoption of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, and the shift to accrual reporting in 2006 fundamentally changed how administrative expenditures were classified, monitored, and audited.

The paper concludes that while these reforms enhanced accountability, the resilience of administrative spending reflects entrenched political imperatives rather than mere technical budgeting choices.