Africa-Press – Uganda. The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by Mr Muwanga Kivumbi Tuesday threw top officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) over failure to adhere to instructions issued before their interface with the MPs.
The session that was meant to probe OPM on queries raised in the 2022/2023 Auditor General (AG) Report was called off after the OPM team was without officials who had been in office during the audit period.
“I would like to seek your indulgence that we allow this group to go back and bring the people who interacted with the Auditors at the time of the audit and they respond to these queries,” the Bugiri Municipality MP Mr Asuman Basalirwa said.
Legislators were particularly displeased that the OPM team that was led by the Permanent Secretary Mr Dunstan Balaba allegedly failed to heed the instructions in the invitation letter.
“We made it very clear in our letters to you that if you are not the accounting officer for the year under review 2022/23, it is imperative that you come alongside that accounting officer who can substantively answer these questions,” Mr Kivumbi told Mr Balaba.
Without disclosing names, Mr Balaba stated that OPM had three accounting officers during the year under review, two of which have been interdicted under undisclosed grounds.
“There are many things that have happened in the Office of the Prime Minister since then. Two of the officials are on interdiction and I have one here who was there for only a few days to the close of the financial year. But I take responsibility because you see when you take over office you take over assets and liabilities and I am willing to answer every question,” Mr Balaba explained.
However, this was not enough to convince the Committee members from through them out.
There were attempts to press Ms Rose Alenga, the immediate former Acting Permanent Secretary to respond to the audit queries that would be raised but she refused.
“I was an accounting officer for roughly 10 days. I was given the letter on June 20, 2023 and I started work three days later. So I came in as a stop-gap of the financial year,” she said.
The committee was not about to give up on their push for Ms Alenga to respond but these attempts were halted by the committee vice chairperson Ms Goretti Namugga who insisted that the committee would not fetch the required questions.
Mr Kivumbi then tasked Mr Balaba to fetch and deliver the required accounting officer before the committee to answer queries in the next session on Friday morning.
“The aggregate opinion is that we give you a second chance to do the needful and take responsibility and no to act the way you have done today. I am very disappointed,” he said.
The committee is, among others, expected to probe into the iron sheets saga, irregularities around the staff recruitment and how their salaries were made during the year under review.
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