The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Prison Services-UPS management has up to two days to present to the Public Accounts Committee-PAC balanced books of accounts for the 2017/2018 Financial Year.
The Committee Chairperson, Nathan Nandala Mafabi issued the ultimatum Wednesday in a meeting with the Prison officials led by the Accounting Officer, Samuel Baker Emiku. The team had appeared to respond to queries raised by the Auditor General in his June 2018 report.
During the meeting, the committee noted several anomalies and inconsistencies in the books of accounts presented by the prison officials. The committee also noted that the Prison authorities had spent above the Shillings 203 billion allocated.
Nandala questioned Emiku about the expenditure of Shillings 18.05 billion outside the appropriated budget without approval from the Secretary to Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi and Parliament.
The Committee also learnt that Uganda Prisons committed government to a tune of Shillings 18.05 billion in the financial year under review.
Emiku confessed that they didn’t get authorisation from the Finance Ministry to spend the excess money. The money was part of the Shillings 40bn, which the prison authorities spent at source from revenue collections.
The books of account from Uganda Prison Services didn’t reflect the expenditure of the Shillings 18 billion prompting the legislators to ask why the books weren’t balancing.
At this point, Nandala directed the Prison officials to present reconciled accounts this Friday.
The Bukoto East MP, Florence Namayanja objected to the time given, saying the Accounting officer had a lot of time to fix the anomalies since the issue under discussion occurred last year.
The Isingiro South MP, Alex Byarugaba supported the proposal, saying giving Uganda Prisons more time would be promoting inefficiency.
Nandala ruled that he would give Uganda Prisons the benefit of the doubt and wait for answers on Friday.
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