MPs question UIA over sh55m mischarged expenditure
Feb 21, 2024
Sseggona demanded a list of the promotional events that compelled UIA to flout financial expenditure regulations.
Medad Lubega Sseggona, Chairperson cCommittee on Public Accounts during a plenary. (Photos by Maria Wamala)
Nelson Mandela Muhoozi
Journalist @New Vision
____________________ Parliament designates MPs to standing committees in accordance with rule 158 of the rules of procedure.
Members of Parliament (MPs) have asked the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to explain the 'unauthorised use of shillings 55 million' for sponsorships of investment promotional events, which is prohibited in the Charter for Fiscal Responsibility.
The MPs on the Committee on Public Accounts (Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises) found out during their interface with the authority on Tuesday, February 20, 2024.
The Committee chaired by Medad Lubega Sseggona (Busiro County East Wakiso, NUP), noted the mischarge expenditure from the Auditor General’s (AG) report on the authority’s financial statements for the financial year 2022/2023 of UIA’s financial documents.
MOU with entities
The director general of the authority, Robert Mukiza, said: “The authority has a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with different partnering institutions to support investment promotion, business development, and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) formalisation. We are required to contribute to sponsoring events that promote investments in the country. So, the most possible way to address MoUs and sponsorships was through the use of consultancy services fund.”
He said UIA was already putting in place measures to implement the AG’s recommendation to avoid such reoccurrence.
“Office of the Auditor General (OAG) advised that realistic budgets are prepared to avoid situations where activities are charged on wrong accounts, where their accounts have either been exhausted or not provided for,” Mukiza said.
Sseggona demanded a list of the promotional events that compelled UIA to flout financial expenditure regulations.
“We are dealing with an issue of mischarge where the law is clear, the evidence is on the wall, the Auditor General made his recommendation, and we shall make our judgement. We wish to see the list of events sponsored at that amount,” he said.
UIA’s director for Investment Promotion and Business Development, Martin Muhangi said they co-sponsored regional investment events such as the Kasese Rwenzori Business Forum, the Rising Woman Event, EAC Business Forum, West Nile Investment Forum, and Northern Uganda Investment Forum.
Recruitment queries
The MPs also queried the glitches in the recruitment process where UIA failed to recruit staff as per the OAG report.
The report indicates that out of shillings 49.9 billion released to UIA, only 49.62 billion was spent leaving unutilised funds due to failed recruitment.
The Authority’s justification was that they failed to get the required competence, but the legislators did not buy into UIA’s justification.
“I would imagine UIA with their mandate cannot fail to get the candidates for their jobs because the work they do is not rocket science. We need to know if there were delays in securing a consultant hiring firm or whether there was a delay in-house,” David Karubanga (Kigorobya County, NRM), said.
Accordingly, Sseggona guided that the committee would ascertain the failed attempts at recruitment by scrutinising recruitment requirements such as the quality of people UIA required and the caliber of applicants they received.
Nevertheless, the committee commended UIA for the steadily growing sector with an increase in licenced projects from 390 to 607 over the past two years.
UIA also registered an increase in planned investments from shillings1.86 billion to 5.27 billion since 2020.
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