Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) officials on Tuesday faced fierce questioning from Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), over unexplained shillings 368 million staff tax remittance.

The legislators tasked UWA officials to explain the source of shillings 368 million they used to remit taxes for staff to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), leading to a financial loss to the Government.

The revelation came from the Auditor General’s report for the year ending June 30, 2023, in which UWA was faulted for the excess expenditure of shillings 4.77 billion.

Out of the shillings 4.77 billion, the AG’s report indicated that UWA spent the shillings 368 million in question to clear fines and penalties from a tax audit conducted by URA and yet the money was meant to have been deducted from the staff before payment.

Committee chairperson Medard Lubega Ssegona asked the officials to explain why UWA paid URA the aforementioned funds even when the same had to be deducted from the employees through Pay as You Earn (PAYE).

According to Sseggona, UWA’s irregular handling of the funds caused financial loss to taxpayers.

“I thought PAYE is paid by the employee that when you budget for their salary, then when it comes to payment, you deduct the tax. You had budgeted for the entire money; the Auditor General’s query is that you spent more than you were supposed to have spent, and the explanation is that you went and paid taxes; the presumption is this, that you paid your staff when URA came, you encroached on our coffers, and paid the tax that the employees would have paid," he said.

UWA responds

According to UWA director of finance and administration Jimmy Mugisa, the money was recovered from the allowances of these staff.

Mugisa said: “The PAYE that was considered by the URA audits came from additional payments that were meant for the staff in the form of transfer allowances after transferring one staff from one station to another. The excess that we paid beyond the budget is shillings 4.7 billion, which is for VAT. We got the money from the wage budget”.

The committee discarded UWA’s explanation, noting that URA couldn’t have carried this out as an audit had UWA deducted the money as required before payment.

Sseggona asked, “Where did you get the shilling 368 million which arose out of the audit? Because you had already paid the taxes because the employees had already gone; some had retired, others were dismissed, others were working, and they were getting their monthly pay, but you hadn’t deducted money from them. So, where did you get this 368 million?”

However, Mugisa failed to reveal the actual source of the funds and asked for more time to allow him to seek more information from the files at the Authority.

“Some of it we got from the staff at the time of payment, some of it came from UWA. I request the committee to give me just a day to look at the computation that arose out of this. I request to confirm whether the tax was from the staff or was paid by the institution,” he said.

Killer guns vs powder ones

The MPs also asked UWA to explain why they insist on using the killer guns instead of adopting powder guns that would minimise both human and wildlife fatalities.

UWA executive director Samuel Mwandha acknowledged the need for the Authority to adapt to the new technology through the use of powder guns but said that the environment the wardens operate in necessitates the use of the killer guns.

“You are right; there is improved technology, and indeed, power guns are some that we could use, but remember, for wildlife protection, we are talking about dealing with poachers and poachers, if they see you first, they kill you, and so, we need to be properly armed so that if we are fired at, we can return,” he said.

But Mwadha also blamed the delayed execution of UWA’s planned activities in 2022/23, like the procurement of guns, on the reversal by UPDF to stop selling guns to the Authority, a move that has lengthened the procurement process.

“Previously, we received guns from UPDF, but since 2019, when we got our last consignment, UPDF advised that we need to budget and procure our own guns.

Now, when we started the process, we could only be provided with 333 guns from Luwero Industries, and we are still in the process of procuring additional because Luwero Industries didn’t have enough. It is important to note that most of our staff have guns from UPDF, but we still hold [them]. But as they work, they get old, they get worn out, some malfunction, and they need to be replaced, and that is why we are procuring more,” he said.

Kashari South lawmaker, Nathan Itungo, asked UWA to clarify on statements in their documents about an assertion that the Authority hasn’t been notified about its merger with Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) in the rationalisation of agencies that is being proposed by the Government.

In the AG’s report, it was also noted that out of the approved 4,249 positions in UWA, 3062 positions were filled, leaving a gap of 1,187 vacant positions, with the Authority promising to fill up the positions following its merger with UWEC.