{"id":52393,"date":"2023-07-12T08:31:43","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T08:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending"},"modified":"2023-07-12T09:55:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T09:55:22","slug":"mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending","title":{"rendered":"MPs ask URA to explain\u00a0 unauthorised spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Officials from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) yesterday had a tough time explaining why they received and spent money without the knowledge and clearance of Parliament.<\/p>\n

The House Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) pressed Commissioner General John Musingunzi for answers as to how URA received Shs101.5 million for yet to be defined projects from the United Nations Capital Development (UNCD) fund.<\/p>\n

MPs also demanded an explanation for $113,555 (nearly Shs418 million) accepted by the tax authority from the World Bank without clearance from Parliament as required by law.<\/p>\n

These questions formed part of follow-up inquiries into issues raised in the Auditor General\u2019s report for the Financial Year 2021\/2022.<\/p>\n

Attention was drawn to the monies after Auditor General John Muwanga indicated that his officers were \u201cnot provided with information that the above funds were budgeted and accordingly appropriated by Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee was particularly disturbed upon learning that URA did not provide any supporting documents speaking to the clearance of the said funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou escaped scrutiny by the Auditor General… You had two chances to do that during the audit and during the exit meeting. And at each of those instances, you did not avail this proof,\u201d committee chair Joel Ssenyonyi told the tax boss.<\/p>\n

By way of explanation, URA\u2019s head of the legal department, Ms Patience Tumusiime, suggested that the relevant department may have been unaware of the existence of the necessary documentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was unfortunate and as the [Assistant Commissioner] Finance has explained, maybe some of these documents were lost in translation. These documents are kept within the legal department because this is an agreement that we signed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Tumusiime said since URA has \u201can inventory of all the agreements… we apologise for the fact that the finance team that was dealing with the auditors maybe was not able to avail [them].\u201d<\/p>\n

Consequently, Mr Musinguzi sought permission and was directed to present the documentation before Cosase today.<\/p>\n

The same committee also demanded answers as to why URA withheld Shs34.7 billion from the previous financial year \u2013 also without Parliament\u2019s knowledge or authorisation.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Cosase had heard from the Auditor General\u2019s principal auditor, Ms Molly Kirungi, who revealed that the revenue body did not return the billions to the Consolidated Fund and yet they were neither absorbed nor spent as originally planned.<\/p>\n

Public finance regulations require all government departments and agencies to return unspent monies to the Consolidated Fund at the close of a financial year within which the money was budgeted for expenditure.<\/p>\n

Beginning this week, Cosase opened hearings into suspected financial irregularities at URA with officials expected to file documents supporting responses to earlier questions as proceedings continue today.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Officials from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) yesterday had a tough time explaining why they received and spent money without the knowledge and clearance of Parliament. The House Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) pressed Commissioner General John Musingunzi for answers as to how URA received Shs101.5 million for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":52392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-52393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nMPs ask URA to explain\u00a0 unauthorised spending - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Officials from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) yesterday had a tough time explaining why they received and spent mone ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MPs ask URA to explain\u00a0 unauthorised spending\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Officials from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) yesterday had a tough time explaining why they received and spent mone ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-12T08:31:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-12T09:55:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689139345.614705.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1053\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"MPs ask URA to explain\u00a0 unauthorised spending\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-12T08:31:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-12T09:55:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending\"},\"wordCount\":468,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689139345.614705.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/mps-ask-ura-to-explain-unauthorised-spending\",\"name\":\"MPs ask URA to explain\u00a0 unauthorised spending - 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