Uganda Police Force (UPF) earned Shs2.5bn from firearms licensing and fire arms rental fees in the 2017/2018 financial year.
The Non Tax Revenue collections are contained in the quarterly budget performance report that Police was meant to present before the Committee of Defence and Internal Affairs of Parliament today.
The revelation comes at a time when insecurity is the country I on the increase characterized by assassinations of high profile Ugandans as well as ordinary citizens.
In the preemptive quarterly budget performance report for 2017/18 and 2018/19 Financial Years, Police recorded revenue collections of Shs21.9bn instead of the Shs22.1bn that they had projected to collect.
Of the non-tax revenue of Shs21.9bn collected last year, Shs1.5bn was collected from firearms licensing while fees for fire arms renting or hiring accounted for Shs1.1bn.
According to the report, Police had a projected to collect Shs502m in firearms licensing, but ended up collecting Shs1.5bn.
However, fire arms renting collections only reached Shs1.1bn against Shs1.9bn projection.
In the report breakdown, Police made no projections in finger print fees but ended up collecting Shs462M, while certificate of good conduct earned the Force Shs2.647bn.
Sale of government vehicles and plants raised Shs255M, while police guards for banks raked in Shs1.4bn, escorts charges brought in Shs98M and fees from traffic accident reports bagged the Force Shs227M.
However, a section of Legislators on the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee have threatened to censure Ministers over the continued snubbing of Committee meetings.
Lwemiyaga County MP, Theodore Ssekikubo led the MPs in protesting the failure of all the Ministers of Internal Affairs to come along with Uganda Police to present to the Committee the Force’s quarterly budget performance for 2017/2018 and 2018/2019.
Ssekikubo’s threats came after the Committee learnt that Minister for Internal Affairs Jeje Odong and State Minister for Internal Affairs, Obiga Kani failed to show up in the Parliament Defense Committe as officials from the police force had been invited to explain a number of issues in line to expenditure of the budget as passed by Parliament, violence in the country and general security situation in Uganda.
Committee Chairperson, Doreen Amule pleaded with MPs to allow the Police officials to present the report, a request that was rejected by Ssekikubo.
The back and forth arguments prompted Amule to adjourn the meeting to Tuesday next week, with all the ministers in question expected to attend.
