Mukono district council has expressed concern for the over three-year silence of the district Public Accounts Committee (PAC), despite the alleged continued release of allowances to the committee members.
Lauben Ssenyonjo, the district male youth councilor has tasked the district chairperson, Rev. Dr. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa to explain reasons why the PAC has taken this long without presenting any report to the council.
Ssenyonjo who has raised the matter in the district council meeting held at the district headquarters also wants the district Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Elizabeth Namanda to tell the council whether the committee is well facilitated or it lacks facilitation, adding that if there are any other technical challenges, the council should be put in the know.
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In response, the district chairperson Bakaluba has told the council that allocation of allowances for the PAC’s business were made but that it is now close to three years since his executive last received a report from the committee.
The PAC examines government finances, including expenditures, financial transactions and the value for money of public spending. The committee examines reports from the auditor general, chief internal auditor, or other inquiry reports.
The district council speaker Betty Hope Nakasi has suggested that PAC members should be asked whether they are no longer interested in sitting on the committee, and if so, the chairperson should suggest new names to the council for approval and they start doing the work as mandated by the law.
The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Elizabeth Namanda stood up and informed the council that her office had been reliably informed by the secretary for the PAC who is her senior staff that it would be sitting soon, and that thereafter, the true state of the matter would be established.
Namanda however in an interview said that it’s on record that the committee members have been fully receiving their allowances despite the fact that they haven’t been transacting the expected businesses out of them.
The speaker Nakasi therefore requested that the district executive liaise with the PAC and they immediately feed council with the situation.
In her address to the council, Mukono Resident District Commissioner, Hajat Fatuma Ndisaba Nabitaka tasked the CAO Namanda to make sure that she gets the exact reason behind the non-functionality of the PAC.
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“The PAC’s mandate is to do a watchdog role to the expenditure and any financial transactions of different sectors in the district. We therefore can’t just sit back and relax when it’s fully instituted and it cannot perform its duties for all this long,” the RDC said.
Tha PAC chairperson, Alone Kalule Mboowa when contacted for a comment did not answer the reporter’s repeatedly phone calls.
In another development, the district speaker expressed dissatisfaction with developments in Kawempe North by-election, where the security agents purported to be members of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) continually batter supporters of National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Erias Luyimbaazi Nalukoola, jailing them and maiming others including members of the media.
“If these security agents are sincerely for the wellbeing of Ugandans, let authorities prevail on them to desist from inhuman activities against unarmed civilians exercising their democratic right to support politicians of their choice,” the dismayed Nakasi said.