The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | A group of civil society organizations under their umbrella group, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) are concerned about government’s failure to implement the recommendations in the Auditor General’s (AG) reports documents over the years.
The group, headed by the Executive Director, Julius Mukunda, said this as they met representatives of the AG’ s office at Audit House in Kampala on March 14. The meeting aimed at forming a working relationship of the two entities in pursuit for achieving service delivery goals of the office of the AG.
Mukunda said, whereas they were grateful for the recently published Treasury Memoranda in response to the AG’s reports, the recommendations are not acted upon in time to influence the budget decisions and complete the accountability cycle.
“In addition to this,” Mukunda said, “there is a backlog for the office of the Auditor General’s assessment which delays follow up on the recommendations therein.”
The group is also concerned about the present gap in assessing the level to which the utilized resources have achieved efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery.
It also urged the AG office to further involve the citizens, who pay taxes in the exchange for service delivery, in the auditing process. The group also wants the AG office to devise more means of delivery audit reports to the public beyond online platforms so they [public] are able to demand accountability from the civil servants in the budget making and implementation process.
In response, Stephen Katerega, the Director for Value for Money and Special Audits in the office of the AG said the views presented by CSBAG were in line with government’s strategy of serving the people in a transparent and fair manna.
“…Government is asking us to produce more audit reports but they are not discussing the ones we have so far produced,” Katerega said, “You (Civil Society) should help us to push for this.”
Katerega said that they are unable to do all the audit work for government departments, agencies and local government because of limited funds. He also urged CSOs to advocate for more funds for the AG office through the Ministry of Finance to enable them achieve targets. Katerega promised CSBAG a cordial working relationship on matters budget advocacy going forward.
