John Muwanga, the Auditor General
MPs on Public Accounts Committee have accused Auditor General, John Muwanga of fueling corruption in Uganda, citing his failure to release the Shs39Bn special audit report on the theft of iron sheets & goats meant for the vulnerable communities in Karamoja. The iron sheets and goats theft was orchestrated by top officials in Government.
“You know we are almost completing another year without you giving the country the report, tell my namesake that this is extremely unfair to the country. Tell the Auditor General that he is also becoming part of the corruption in this country because that breeds impunity,” said Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, Chairperson Public Accounts Committee.
His accusations followed an admission made by officials from the Auditor General’s office that the completed special report on iron sheets scandal was still in possession of the Auditor General, prompting MPs to raise concerns on why the report is still being kept private, yet over Shs39Bn of public funds was misused.This was during a meeting held between the Committee and officials from Office of Prime Minister, where it was reported that of the money allocated to this project, Shs6.8Bn was spent on travel allowances, fuel and maintenance of cars by officials from Office of the Prime Minister and contrary to the promise of giving out 16 goats to each beneficiary, only one goat was distributed to each beneficiary.
In the preliminary December 2023 report by the Auditor General, it was reported that out of the Shs39Bn meant to procure and distribute goats and iron sheets, Shs1.78Bn was spent on travel in land, while fuel, oil and lubricants cost Shs700m, and OPM also planned to spend Shs300M on vehicle maintenance, while the procurement of goats was allocated Shs24Bn.
The Office of Prime Minister also allocated another Shs2.2Bn on travel in land for monitoring, while civil works for maintenance of Moroto regional office cost Shs500M, and procurement of iron sheets cost Shs8.8Bn.
“What concerns me is that workshops and seminars took Shs1.8Bn, Travel in land Shs1.8Bn, another travel in land Shs2.5Bn. A total of Shs6.8Bn of the Shs39Bn that is how you spent it and this was money originally for distribution of goats. The manner over which the urgency you put on this money, when we are processing the so-called supplementary budgets, it is like this Uganda will close if we don’t give you this money. Now, we give you Shs39Bn but you spent Shs6.8Bn of this money on travel in land and maintenance,” said Muwanga, who’s also the Butamala County MP.
