AG unearths diversion of funds, payroll inconsistencies at Parliament
Mr John Muwanga, the Auditor General. Photo/File
What you need to know:
- In a report for the year ending June 2023, Mr John Muwanga, the Auditor General, red-flagged a diversion of Shs1.2b “irregularly diverted from the activities on which they were budgeted and spent on other activities”.
An audit by the Auditor General into the operations of the Parliamentary Commission has unearthed multiple irregularities including the diversion of billions of shillings, unverified staff and payroll inconsistencies.
In a report for the year ending June 2023, Mr John Muwanga, the Auditor General, red-flagged a diversion of Shs1.2b “irregularly diverted from the activities on which they were budgeted and spent on other activities”.
The auditors, according to the report, were unable to verify 39 staff employed by the Commission.
“Out of 577 employees on the Parliamentary Commission May 2023 permanent salary payroll, a total of 556 (96.4 percent) were fully verified, while 21 (3.6 percent) did not show up. Out of 121 employees on the Parliamentary Commission May 2023 contract salary payroll, a total of 113 (93.4 percent) were fully verified, while 8 (6.6 percent) did not show up,” the report reads in part.
The report also highlights inconsistencies in the identities, names, dates of birth, and gender of 105 staff on the main payroll.
The office of the Auditor General and the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development conducted a headcount of all government employees last year in an attempt to clean its payroll. This followed persistent reports of mismanagement and ghost staff through whom billions of taxpayers’ money is lost.
The findings by the Auditor General presented to Parliament in December 2023, which we are only publishing today, offer official confirmation of mismanagement and irregularities in the 11th Parliament. This is in the wake of multiple allegations from blatant misuse of public funds, corruption, extravagance, and influence peddling against the institution, its leaders, and legislators alike that have dominated social media platform X, in the last week.
The social media campaign run by individual activists has featured documents attributed to the Parliamentary Commission which manages the institution’s funds, as well as anonymous testimonies by those close to the institution.
In some of the allegations, top leaders are accused of irregularly getting their kin into employment at the House.
Mr Chris Obore, the director of communications and public affairs at Parliament, however, noted that the diversion was done in line with the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance, and denied any wrongdoing by the House.
“There is no payroll inconsistency except that during the verification of public servants by the Auditor General, some staff had some names in their IDs not consistent with what is in the academic papers. For instance, some people with three names had only two in the ID. This wasn’t a big deal because they turned up for verification. The payroll is usually cleaned every month based on retirement, new recruitment, promotion, or death, therefore; it is a living document amenable to change. It is not a static document,” Mr Obore said.
In response to the allegations of irregular diversions, Mr Adolf Mwesige, the clerk to parliament and secretary to the commission, yesterday said: “Sometimes we get emergencies where we are compelled to seek funds from a planned activity to another that is urgent …it is still for Parliamentary activities.”
“It is true that there are some staff that were not verified because they had genuine reasons to be away… there are those whose contracts had expired, others who were sick, and others who were on duty elsewhere, later we submitted them for verification. Our payroll is approved by the AG now,” he added.
Mr Mwesige declined to address the social media exhibition, while Mr Obore accused “political scammers” of forging mismanagement allegations to soil the image of Parliament and its leaders.
Underperformance
According to the report, the parliamentary commission had Shs19b lying idle on their accounts at the close of the year, signaling failure to achieve set targets.
“As a result, I noted that 10 outputs with 44 activities worth Shs53.712b were fully implemented while six outputs with 65 activities worth Shs717.6b were partially implemented,” the report noted.
