Heads of departments on spot over financial impropriety

Lwengo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Lwengo district lost an estimated Shillings 100 million last year in deceitful expenditure by heads of department, a report by the District Public Accounts Committee-DPAC has revealed. The report pins heads of departments for conniving to misappropriate public funds as well as falsifying accountability for money meant for various projects under their dockets.

For instance, in the Education department, 10.4 million Shillings meant for Nakyenyi Secondary School under the Universal Secondary Education-USE program disappeared without a trace. Another Shillings 43 million under the Discretionary Development Equalization Grant-DDEG program was misappropriated by the District Planning Department. The same department allegedly spent 4.7 million Shillings on repairing the previous district administration offices in Kyetume, but no work was done on the site, according to the Committee report.

In the production department, Shillings 3.74 million was spent on the facilitation of Agricultural Extension Services staff in sub-counties, but the committee did not find any accountability report and the alleged recipients never filled out any acknowledgment forms. In the Finance department Shillings, 7.6 million was spent on unspecified purposes at the district headquarters, and Shillings 9.7 million was also paid out in form of outstanding debts to unspecified suppliers.

Similarly, Shillings 210,000 was collected from local revenue but was never banked into the district revenue collection account. In the lower local councils, money was also spent on a nonfunctional executive committee in Malongo Sub County. The committee report points out that the established financial misappropriation is committed through syndicates by the different technical staff that uses the funds for personal benefits.

“We recommend that the responsible heads of departments be held accountable for these irregularities and accordingly be reprimanded and compelled to return the misused funds,” the report reads in part. Jorum Mugume, the Lwengo District Public Committee Chairperson says that besides the district executive committee they have also shared their findings with the Minister of Local Government to take the necessary actions.

When asked about the committee findings, Ibrahim Kitatta, the Lwengo district Chairperson noted that it has helped to bring to light the abuse of office in the district and will form a basis for taking appropriate action against the culprits.

The District Public Accounts is established as a statutory body under section 88(9) of the Local Government Act, to play an accountability oversight function on the use and utilization of public funds with the local government.

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