The Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities paid Shs13bn for Uganda to host the 2020 MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) and Government has failed to recover the Shs3.2Bn from the organisers after the cancellation of the show.
The details are contained in the 2021/2022 Auditor General’s report that indicated that the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities entered into an Memorandum of Understanding with a foreign company on 5th February 2020 to enable Uganda host the 2020 edition of MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) on 13th June 2020.
According to the Auditor General, Government agreed to a sponsorship fee of Shs13bn, which was paid in two installments of Shs10.4Bn that was paid on 12th March 2020 and another Shs2.6Bn paid on 19th January 2021.
However due to the COVID-19 pandemic which came about in March 2020, staging of the event could not take place as earlier planned, prompting the Ministry of Tourism to revise the contract on 9th November 2020 with the company to modify the function and have it held virtually on 20th February 2021.
The show further suffered another catastrophe due to a heightened electoral season, bringing more challenges to the Awards’ show prompting the organizers to announce cancellation of the function on 14th June 2021.
A scrutiny into the Ministry’s Financial Position indicated that the Ministry of Tourism was meant to receive Shs3.2bn from the organisers of the Awards basing on the preliminary findings by a private audit firm that was engaged by the provider, to assess the recoverability of the funds upon termination of the agreement.
The Ministry of Tourism had requested the Auditor General to undertake a special audit to confirm the amount recoverable, which audit was still ongoing at the time this report was published, although the Office of the Auditor General advised the Ministry of Tourism to ensure that once the special audit exercise is completed, the outstanding amount that will be confirmed by the audit should be followed up and recovery accordingly made.
