Minister Nankabirwa faces PAC over markets cash
Jul 31, 2013
State minister for fisheries, Ruth Nankabirwa, has appeared before the public accounts committee to explain her role in the disbursement of sh10b meant for SACCOS.
By Mary Karugaba
State minister for fisheries, Ruth Nankabirwa, has appeared before the public accounts committee to explain her role in the disbursement of sh10b meant for SACCOS.
The money according to a special audit report was mismanaged and did not benefit the intended groups.
Nankabirwa was then a minister of microfinance. Nankabirwa told the committee on Wednesday that the money should be accounted for and whoever is responsible for the misuse should be brought to book.
Members of the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) who drafted the concept paper upon which the project was conceived told legislators that the finance ministry and Microfinance Support Centre (MSC) Ltd “hijacked” the project the moment it became bankable, excluding them from its implementation and ultimately mismanaging it.
Although the report does not directly implicate the former MSC boss Wandira Kazibwe, Nankabirwa and then finance minister, Syda Bbumba, members of JSC accused the trio, together with bureaucrats at the finance ministry and MSC of intentionally elbowing them out during the implementation stage.
This they, said, resulted into "outright fraud" as officials in the finance ministry and MSC inflated lists of intended beneficiaries and sometimes paid colossal sums to ghost entities as the project went off rails.
In his report, the Auditor General highlighted a slew of accountability flaws ranging from falsified accountabilities, inflation of lists of beneficiaries to payment of funds to ghost beneficiaries.
The auditor noted that lists of beneficiaries were inflated, while the project lost billions of money as bureaucrats in implementing agencies paid colossal sums to ghost entities (markets).
He, for example, noted that sh662m was paid to Kampala United Park Yard Cooperative SACCO by MSC for various market beneficiaries.
The presidential initiative started in 2010 to create a revolving fund to help the poorest of the poor in markets around the country access loans at no interest.