The Trade Ministry is considering terminating Uganda’s membership to some international organizations citing lack of subscription fees.
The Trade Ministry Permanent Secretary, Julius Onen disclosed this while appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday.
The matter came to the fore during the scrutiny of queries raised by the Auditor General’s report for the year 2015/2016 on the trade ministry. The ministry has outstanding obligations to international organizations amounting to Shillings 7.9 billion.
The ministry pays membership fees to four International Organizations including the World Trade Organization, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and South Center.
The ministry requires Shillings 3.8 billion annually for the subscription fees. However, the under Secretary in the Trade Ministry, Fred Ogene, says only Shillings 400 million is provided by the trade ministry each financial year for the subscription.
However, the PAC Committee members led by their deputy Chairperson, Gerald Karuhanga warned Onen against failure to prioritise the matter.
Karuhanga demanded the ministry officials to table evidence showing their effort to get money from finance.
However, Onen explained that their attempts to get money to clear the subscription arrears haven’t yielded results. He says government had proposed to place the obligations under the Foreign Affairs Ministry but no one wanted to take responsibility.
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