Parliament vets Akol as Auditor General, two others as judges

Parliament’s Appointment Committee on July 4 vetted Mr Edward Akol, a certified public accountant, tapped by President Museveni to become the next Auditor General.

Two judges of the industrial court, Justice Linda Lillian Tumusiime Mugisha, and Justice Anthony Patrick Musana Wabwire were also evaluated.

The vetting exercise took place at Parliament and was chaired by Speaker Anita Among deputised by Thomas Tayebwa.

The official stand from the committee’s closed-door proceedings was not clear by press time.
 
Section 168 (4) of the House’s Rules of Procedure states that a candidate shall be taken as approved provided votes cast in favor of that candidate constitute a simple majority of members present and voting.

Following the exercise, Anita tweeted on social media platform X that, “...the committee report will be transmitted to the appointing authority as dictated by the rules [of Procedure].”

Section 171 of the Rules of Procedure states that the Speaker shall communicate to the President in writing within three working days after the decision of the Appointments Committee on any person nominated by the President for appointment.

If found competent, they will then take an oath of office.

Opposition Chief Whip John Baptist Nambeshe, a member of the Appointments Committee told Monitor that Akol seems to be the right man for the job.

“For 30 years down the road, he has helped bring innovations that are integrated with advancing technology and seems to have what it takes to succeed his boss,” Mr Nambeshe said.

Mr Akol is replacing John F.S Muwanga who has cumulatively served as Auditor General for 22 years.

Mr Akol briefly spoke to Monitor giving insight into what transpired during the vetting exercise.

“People know that we have issues of corruption, backlogs and many other issues which are known to us. So, their interest was to see how I can be able to sort out some of those issues. That is the sort of the discussion we had. So I believe [that] it went on well,” Mr Akol said.
 
On fighting corruption, he said the magic would be in the financial audits which are “good at bringing out red flags,” and that if one wanted to look at fraud, forensics can be a good start.
 
On the expectations of the journey ahead, Mr Akol said it is a huge task as the office entails giving assurance to the country that indeed the resources that have been appropriated by Parliament have been used per the laws and procedures. 

The Auditor General is an office established under Article 163 of the Constitution and has wide-ranging powers, including pre-approving withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund.

The mandate of the office holder is to audit and report on the public accounts of Uganda. Institutions eligible for auditing by the AG are courts, the central and local governments, public universities, parastatals, and any entity established by Parliament.

Daily Monitor was not able to get hold of the two judges for comments.
 
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