Solicitor General officials fail to account for inflated per-diem

May 10, 2017

The auditors complained that although the team travelled, the payments lacked supporting documents and the figures were above what the officers were entitled to.

Solicitor General, Francis Atoke (right) and his team before committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises. PHOTO/Miriam Namutebi.

Officials from the Solicitor General's office on Tuesday shocked MPs when they failed to account for the inflated per-diems that they received during the preliminary hearings of the Heritage Oil and Gas case in London.

During the meeting, the MPs on Commissions, state authorities and state enterprises discovered that the officers were paid per-diem that was over and above the government rates for the initial 12 days that the team was in UK.

In a special audit report, the auditors noted that the Ministry paid the then Attorney General Peter Nyombi $12,865 instead of $7050, Acting Solicitor General Harriet Lwabi was paid $11,425 instead of $6000, the then Director Litigation Robinah Rwakoojo $7540 instead of $5400, Christopher Gashirabake $7540 instead of $5400.

The auditors complained that although the team travelled, the payments lacked supporting documents and the figures were above what the officers were entitled to. The auditors said they were not availed original boarding pass and air tickets. 

During the meeting, the committee chairman Abdul Katuntu asked the Solicitor General Francis Atoke to table evidence of travel and why the documents were not availed to the auditors during auditing.

Although Atoke said the documents were available, he complained of being given little time. "Mr. Chairman, I was not a solicitor General at the time and I don't know the reason why they were paid like this. May be the money was for warm clothing," Atoke said.

"However Mr., chairman, I need to go back to the documents. I don't think the accounts people paid without justification," he added.

The Committee however turned to some of the recipients who were among the officials to explain. Among the officers were George Kalemera who received $6,460, Martin Mwambutsya $6,460, and Gashirabake.

"The Solicitor General said he was not there. Can the recipients who are here tell us why their per-diem was inflated?" Katuntu asked.

When Gashirabake was asked, he said he needed to check the documents. Both Mwambutsya and Kalemera also requested for more time to find out, sending members into laughter.

"If they can't remember now, why do you give them more time? The extra time is for what? To go and concocts accountability?" Betty Anywar asked.

The officers were appearing before the committee to answer queries raised by the Auditor general in a report to the committee.

In the report, John Muwanga said sh4.8b lacked supporting documents.

At the beginning of the Heritage Oil case both in Uganda and in London in 2010, Parliament appropriated a supplementary budget worth Shs52.455b and of this, Shs49.95b was allocated to Ministry of Justice, while Shs2.5 was allocated to URA.

The Ministry further received additional funding for the arbitration process through the normal budget process amounting to Shs4.689b.

 "In absence of the requisite supporting documentation, I was unable to confirm that the amounts were used for the intended purpose," Muwanga said.

Although the treasury accounting instructions requires the accounting officers to set up a fully-fledged filing system with the main objective of ensuring that accounting documents are filed and help establish a clear trail of the expenditure, an expenditure worth sh761m was made without vouchers.

Another expenditure worth sh290.7m paid as officials' perd iem was signed for by one or two persons on behalf of the other officers. The auditors said there were no evidence of acknowledgement of receipt by the individuals beneficiaries of the funds.

A total of sh23.6m reportedly paid to various officials as sitting allowances for meetings attended, did not tally with the record of attendance, the auditors noted.

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