Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee [PAC – Central Government] has directed the Office of the President to provide a detailed breakdown of Shs 5 billion spent on the Non-Aligned Movement [NAM] Summit that Uganda hosted in January 2024.
The directive was issued during a session chaired by Muwanga Kivumbi, on Wednesday, where top officials from the Office of the President, led by Yunus Kakande, the Secretary Office of the President appeared to respond to audit queries on the Shs 61.7 billion NAM budget, all of which was reported to have been spent.
Kivumbi pointed out that the Shs5 billion allocated to State House and the Special Forces Command [SFC] was not categorised under classified expenditure and required full accountability.
“This is not classified. So, what was it? Are we paying for SFC? Were they paid allowances,” he remarked.
In his response, Emmanuel Walani, Under Secretary for Finance and Administration in the Office of the President, explained that the funds were used for activities under the accommodation and security subcommittees chaired by State House.
“State House chaired what we call the accommodation subcommittee and also had elements of deployments… including aspects of household feeding and the feeding for the men and women who were deployed during the NAM subcommittee,” Walani said.
When pressed for more clarity, Walani added: “We pay them each Shs 11,000 per day. This is part of that budget… and the fuel expenses for the men,” noting that the funds were not classified due to the nature of the expenditure.
Kivumbi called for a detailed breakdown of the funds demanding to know how they were used.
“Can you tell us, can you give us a detailed schedule, breakdown of the Shs 5bln?” he said.
The officials promised to formally provide the breakdown of how the funds were used.
The committee also raised concerns about Shs 3bln that remained unaccounted for, Shs 2.6bln linked to the Ministry of Works and Transport, and Shs 390 million to the Ministry of ICT.
Hajji Kakande, the Permanent Secretary, defended the delay in accountability.
“We passed all the money to different subcommittees in different ministries. The Ministry of Works and Transport happened to be one, and the Ministry of ICT. By the time the auditors were carrying out the auditing, they did not bring up their accountability in time,” he said.
Muwanga Kivumbi on his side added that the entities had up to a year to respond to the Auditor General whose reports were out in December 2024, but instead chose to wait up to 2025 to respond to a NAM summit that happened in 2024.
The Committee also raised concerns over failure of the Office of the Presidency to title its lands, to which Kakande pledged to complete in two years.
