Ministers to account for CHOGM funds

Oct 12, 2009

Over 12 ministers and their permanent secretaries are to be questioned over the sh255b spent on hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

By Mary Karugaba

Over 12 ministers and their permanent secretaries are to be questioned over the sh255b spent on hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The public accounts committee has reserved two weeks for ministries and government departments to account for billions of funds that were spent on CHOGM in November 2007.

According the timetable released by the committee yesterday, the scrutiny of the report that was compiled by the Auditor General on CHOGM activities is expected to start on October 28.

The ministries include those of finance, foreign affairs, the Prime Minister’s office, trade and industry, local government, works and transport, water and environment, gender, labour and social development, information and communication technology and health.

The committee chairman, Nandala Mafabi, said although a few ministers and permanent secretaries have been listed, all those who received money will be summoned to account.

“I assure you that we are going to deal with all those who received the CHOGM money,” Mafabi said.

Asked why the committee had taken two years to handle the report, Mafabi said: “We wanted to first deal with other Auditor General’s reports and then work on CHOGM.”

The Government in the 2007/8 financial year released sh255b for the preparations of the CHOGM activities. In December 2008, the Government requested the Auditor General, John Muwanga, to carry out an audit.

Among the issues raised in the report were flaws in the procurement of CHOGM vehicles, where some of the vehicles delivered were second-hand and not of agreed specifications.

The Auditor General also pointed out that by the time of compiling the report, payments amounting to over sh31b were still outstanding despite the fact that all the money had been provided for by the Government.

He further questioned over sh30b that was invested in private hotels, noting that a lot of the money was neither invested nor accounted for.

In addition, he raised concerns about the sh29b the Government invested in the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, a joint venture with Meera Investments of Sudhir Ruparelia, saying the land was never valued nor any title presented, and no audit could be carried out because it involved a private firm.

Muwanga recently called upon Parliament to quickly handle the report so that the culprits are brought to book.

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