Top officials from the Office of the President have been grilled by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as to why Shs1.2bn was returned to the Consolidated Fund in 2017/18.
The team from the Office of the President had been summoned to respond to audit queries raised with Auditor General’s Report of 2017/2018 that highlighted that the Office of President received Shs126.86bn but only Shs125.71bn was utilized, leaving a balance of Shs1.2bn.
Yunus Kakande, Secretary, Office of the President told the Committee that the failure to absorb all the funds was because of the deletion from the payroll of pensioners who couldn’t be accounted for after joint verification between Office of the President and Ministry of Public Service, leaving Shs1.16bn unspent.
On what the other funds was used for, Kakande added, “Some of the money was meant for statutory salaries in the course of that financial year, the principal took an advance for some money, he wanted some money and took an advance so we gave him an advance, eventually we recovered, we didn’t pay him and recovered in the next financial year and that was returned back to the treasury.”
Nandala Mafabi, PAC Chairperson asked who the principal is to which Kakande responded, “His Excellence the President.”
It is claimed that President Yoweri Museveni had asked for a salary advance in the Financial Year 2015/2016.
Julius Kagolo, Principal Accountant, Office of the President further told the Committee that the President earns a monthly salary of Shs3.6M and he got an advance of Shs19.1m, with State House having to run back to Parliament with a supplementary request so as to foot the President’s salary advance demands.
“It was coming to the end of the financial year so we kept on recovering that money that is why we had that balance that was returned to the consolidated fund. He requested for an advance and to get the advance, we had to request for a supplementary,” Kagolo said.
