Bank of Uganda appearing before the committee

The Bank of Uganda officials led by the deputy governor bank of Uganda Louis Kasekende were grilled before the parliamentary committee on commissions, statutory Authorities and state enterprises over hiring external lawyers to battle court cases which are against central bank.

The committee chaired by the MP for Bugweri county Abdul Katuntu had summoned the bank of Uganda governor to explain why they seek services of private lawyers to represent the bank of Uganda in court yet the bank has a legal department with legal officers who could have battled the cases in court

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Among the notable cases is the ongoing crane bank case against bank of Uganda which is being pursued by the private lawyers on behalf of bank of Uganda.

The committee members who include the woman MP Koboko district Margaret Babadiri, Kitgum municipality MP Beatrice Anywar ,Bukedea district woman MP Anita Among and Abdul Katuntu pinned Bank of Uganda officials for not utilizing the services of the office of the Attorney general as the government principal legal advisor to battle some of the cases brought against bank of Uganda instead of wasting tax payers money on hiring external layers.

Katuntu  said that government should guide the its institutions  on what point they should seek external lawyers service to cut costs spent on private layers yet there is Attorney general paid to deal with court cases.

However the deputy governor Louis Kasekende and bank of Uganda legal officer Margaret Kasule said that the central bank legal department is under staffed hence resorting to hiring the private lawyers.

the commitee gave officials from Bank of Uganda up-to Thursday to submit the total legal fees they have paid to external lawyers since 2013.The fees must also include those paid to lawyers in the case between Bank of Uganda and Crane Bank.

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MP Abdu Katuntu

The Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises queried the expenditure of Bank of Uganda during this year’s 50 years celebrations.

MPs while interfacing with the Bank of Uganda officials led by the Governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebire, said during the procurement of items and services for Bank of Uganda celebrations of 50 years there procurements found necessary that were done outside the normal procurements raising questions from MPS why they were not done in normal way.

MPS on the committee chaired by Bugweri County MP, Abdul Katuntu, are querying the procurement of pens for the Bank of Uganda celebration at 100 dollars each.

On look of the pen MPs are suspicious that were designed in the US and made in china and are considering handing over some of the pens to Auditor general for purposes of authentication.

MPS are also questioning the accountability of 700 million shillings   used by Bank of Uganda for school challenge, 100 million shillings paid for a cocktail and 144 million shillings paid for accommodation for the guests who came for the celebrations.

The committee also directed bank of Uganda officials to submit to the committee all the 154 internal audit reports and 17 tender contracts since 2014 to 2016 for scrutiny.

The committee allocates three days scrutiny of Bank of Uganda over internal audits and tender contracts to ensure proper accountability of the funds.

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UNRA Executive director, Allen Kagina.

The Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has ordered the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to give the committee names of all the Authority staff who initiated and approved the unjustified payment during the reconstruction of Mbarara-Ntungamo-Kabale –Katuna road a project that cost 65 billion shillings.

The committee while meeting the old UNRA executive led by Sebuga Kimeze and new executive Director, Allen Kagina, noted that there was unjustified inclusion of transport costs, losses and taxes in the use of revision of price leading to a loss of 154,955 Euros.

The Committee chaired by the Woman MP for Bukedea district, Annita Among, said that UNRA should recover this money from the UNRA officers who authorized this payment.

Former UNRA spokesperson Dan Alinange explains to MPs the progress of the Mbarara-Ntungamo-Katuna.

The unjustified payment was effected to Reynolds Construction Company according to Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2014/15.

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MP Abdu Katuntu the Chair of the Committee.

The Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (CCOSASE) recently pinned the former Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) directors for forging contract documents in the awarding of a 138 billion shillings contract.

According to the auditor general’s report of 2013/14 there was variation on the dates of signing and awarding contracts meant for the construction of Vurra-Arua-Koboko-Araba road.

Auditor general report also indicated that within the contract document a page was missing and a different unedited page was inserted which may have caused price fluctuations.

This caused the committee members while meeting the old team of UNRA headed by Eng.Kimeze Ssebuga to get suspicious of corruption connivance amongst UNRA officials and directing UNRA serving boss, Allen Kagina, to submit the contract documents for scrutiny by the committee.

A grader works on Vurra-Arua-Koboko-Oraba road.

The Chairperson of the Committee who is also Bugweri County MP, Abdul Katuntu, said that the contract in question should be subjected to a legal audit when given to parliament by UNRA boss by Friday this week.

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Business man Karim Hirji of the Imperial group of hotels.

Business man Karim Hirj last week confirmed that the 262 million shillings given to him by President to purchase a transformer during the 2007 Common Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) was a gift.

Karim told this to a team of four MPs who had been sent by the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) which is chaired by Bugweri County MP, Abdul Katuntu, at Imperial Royale hotel to verify the status of the transformer in question.

President Yoweri Museveni in 2007 before the hosting of CHOGM directed the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to advance the money to Karim’s Hotel Imperial Royal to buy a transformer so as to light up the hotel that was among those identified to host guests.

The auditor general’s report of 2014/15 queried the action stating that it was public money which should be refunded by Karim to REA.

Imperial Royal Hotel that President Museveni directed Rural Electrification Authority to give over 200 million Uganda shillings for the purchase of a transformer.

After the fact finding tour by MPs on COSASE on whether the transformer bought was still functioning at Imperial Royal Hotel, Karim informed MPs that he even has a letter that states that the transformer was a donation.
However, Katuntu insisted that anyone who used public money whether in a form of donation or grant, he or she has to pay back thus summoning Karim to appear before the committee on Thursday this week.

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Anita Among, the deputy chairperson COSASE of Parliament.

The directive was made by the  deputy chairperson of the committee, Anita Among, after the query raised by the audit report of 2014/15 showing that UBC had failed to collect debts from different debtors to a tune of over 30 billion shillings .

The committee while meeting UBC officials led by the corporation’s managing director, Winston Agaba, noted that UBC signed no agreement with parliament to air its preceding at any cost but are surprised to see UBC books of accounts showing that parliament owes them 10 billion shillings .

UBC management has been for the past years claiming parliament is indebted to UBC funds worth 10 billion shilling after airing its plenary proceedings.

MPs also directed that UBC submits its asset register by 30th November 2016 after the audit’s report indicated that UBC management doesn’t know its assets across the country.

Meanwhile the Management of UBC has also been grilled over non-remittance of 5% employees NSSF.

The auditor general’s report of 2014/15 implicated UBC management of failure to remit the savings of 17bn shillings and over 30bn yet their books of accounts showed the deduction of the money on each employee.

In reply the managing director of UBC, Winston Agaba, said the failure is due to the financial crippling the cooperation is in.

The headquarters of the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).

Furthermore he also informed the committee that UBC has also not paid 247 workers since September of this year which is also affecting their output.

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MP Abdu Katuntu the Chair of the Committee.

This During an interface between the committee chaired by MP, Abdul Katuntu into the audit queries of Uganda National Roads Authority for the financial year 2014/2015 and  the 5 companies including China railway 18^th Group, China railway No.3 Group, China Railway No. 5, Zhongmei Engineering Company and China Chongqing International Construction Corporation.

The committee discovered that part of the 47billion that was advanced to these contractors to compensate people affected by road works was instead deposited and is currently being held in separate bank accounts in China instead of Banks in Uganda.

Katuntu directed the Chinese officials to return to the committee tomorrow with all the financial statements showing the progress of compensations and other documents showing advance guarantees.

We captured the proceedings of the committee while Katuntu was questioning the Chinese officials.

A committee member also, Kibaale MP, Engineer Cuthbert Abigaba, expressed disappointment with the unpreparedness of the Chinese officials to explain how government funds are being handled.

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Abdu Katuntu the Iganga Municipality MP who is also the Parliamentary Committee Chairperson on Commissions, Statutory and State Enterprises.

Abdul Katuntu, the Committee Chairperson and also Bugweri Member of Parliament ordered officials from URC to produce a list of assets showing the prices at which these properties have been disposed off.

During a meeting between MPs Committee and the officials of URC led by their Managing Director, Charles Kateeba, the MPs were shocked to learn that URC sold off assets of the Corporation but did not keep an asset register showing what has been sold and at what price.

The committee is probing non-valued assets, unserviced loans and trade and payables worth over 144 billion shillings as reflected in the Auditor General’s report of the financial year 2014.

Katuntu and Busiro East Member of Parliament, Medad Segoona, noted that although the privatization unit gave the corporation a list of assets sold off, the asset register has never been updated for transfer.

While responding these queries Kateeba said that some of the queries should be directed to the privatization unit since most of the work for the corporation is generated from there.

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