The Directorate of Ethics and Integrity officials Thursday failed to account for multi-millions spent in two financial years.
Officials led by Ethics Minister Fr. Simon Lokodo were appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to provide responses to queries raised in the June 2016 and June 2017 audit reports, but fell below expectations when they admitted not having evidence on funds they spent to fight corruption in Uganda.
In one of the queries, the auditors questioned the maintenance costs incurred by the entity during the 2016/17 year which amounted to Shs323.2m as compared to the prior year of Shs153.2m.
This represented an increase of Shs170m which the Auditor General, John Muwanga considered significant in a period of one year.
Alex Okello, Secretary to Directorate told the Committee that the money was used in repairing 17 vehicles for the 60 staff at the Directorate, of which half of the staff are support staff.
The Directorate was also found to have spent Shs280.8m on rent and a;so paid a lot of money to NSSF in four installments without a valid contract with auditors.
The Auditor General argued that lack of valid contract implies that the Directorate doesn’t know the extent of its obligations and whether the terms and conditions are being adhered to.
When questioned about the matter, the Directorate pushed the blame to Uganda Land Commission asserting that the responsibility of getting the tenancy agreement is between Uganda Land Commission and the Land Lord.
“The delay was due to failure of ULC and the landlord to enter an agreement since September 2013 despite constant reminders by the Directorate. The Directorate is however in the advanced stage of getting the tenancy agreement. The payment to the landlord was based on the expired contract and on the same contract terms,” Okello said.
He told the Committee that the Directorate has obtained the draft Tenancy Agreement which is pending signature of the responsible officers in Uganda Land Commission and they expect this to be finalised by the end of November 2018.
Okello’s response raised more queries from the MPs with PAC Chairperson, Angelline Osegge tasking the Directorate to explain the circumstances under which the rent was being paid.
“So you don’t still have one (tenancy agreement) and you’re paying money on what basis? How have you been paying rent without tenancy agreement” Osegge asked.
Mathias Mpugga also demanded the Directorate to avail Parliament with transmittal letters from the tenancy agreement.
It was observed that Shs200M was spent on Janan Luwum National Celebration Day during the period under review.
However, this activity had not been budgeted for, with auditors warning that there is a risk that other budgeted activities were not implemented because of lack of funds for the activity.
The Directorate defended the expenditure noting that Janani Luwum National Day was declared a public holiday by President in 2015 and he directed commemoration of the day but the activity was commemorated after the budgeting process for the financial year under review had long been completed.
Additionally, the Directorate advanced Shs164.5m to personal accounts of staff to make onward payment for supplies, consultancies, workshops and seminars as well as allowances to colleagues for field trips.
When the Auditors scrutunised the suspicious expenditure, they discovered that there was no evidence to show that the allowances received on behalf of other staff were indeed passed on to them as no acknowledgements were provided for verifications.
Because of advancing funds to personal accounts, a sum of Shs11.66m due was Withholding tax from suppliers was not deducted and remitted to URA as required by section 119 of the Income Tax Act.
In his response, Okello admitted that although the Directorate can ascertain the number of participants invited for a workshop, the entity cannot ascertain the actual participants during the workshops in the Districts earlier since some of the invited participants delegate other officers to represent them in such workshops.
With no evidence and convincing answers coming from the Ethics team, Osegge was forced to adjourn the meeting.
“We don’t have time to keep sitting here to squeeze for answers which aren’t coming,” she said.
