The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The return of shillings 1.7 billion that was meant for pensioners to the consolidated fund by the Defense Ministry in the 2017/2018 financial year has irked members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The issue came to the fore on Thursday during an interface between Defense Ministry officials led by their Under Secretary, Edith Buturo and PAC chaired by Budadiri West MP, Nathan Nandala Mafabi.
The officials had appeared to respond to audit queries raised by the Auditor General is his report for the year ended June 2018.
While the audit report indicated that shillings 615.4 million out of the shillings 1.4 trillion defense budget unspent in the financial year, the head of accounts, Elton Denis Barigye told PAC that the unspent funds were Shillings 1.7 billion.
He explained that the shillings 1.7billion was meant for pensioners but it bounced back due to invalid bank details of the beneficiaries.
Following disagreements over shillings 615.4 million figure indicated by the Auditor General, Nandala directed his representatives on the committee to reconcile on the figure and report back.
However, the Maruzi County MP, Maxwell Akora queried why the money isn’t captured in the Defense Ministry financial statements.
Kwania County MP, Tonny Ayo noted that there is no way the committee would prove that the money was returned to the Consolidated Fund or not since it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Defense Ministry account books.
Efforts by Barigye to explain that the money bounced back during the financial year and immediately returned to the treasury and could not be reflected in the final accounts were futile.
Akora noted that the committee couldn’t interrogate the figure unless it is captured in the accounts. Buturo appealed for more time to reconcile the figure and report back.
Nandala gave the Ministry up to Monday to provide accountability for the Funds and provide details relating to the Shillings 1.7 billion pension payments that bounced and evidence that it was returned to the Consolidated Fund.
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