UWA fails to explain Shs368m tax expenditure

Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) has ordered officials at Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to return to the House on Wednesday with a detailed explanation on the source Shs368m which was paid to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes.

Appearing before Cosase on Monday, UWA executive director Sam Mwandha and finance director Jimmy Mugisha told legislators that at least Shs368m was paid to the tax body following an audit by URA.

The revelations by UWA officials irked committee chairperson Medard Lubega Ssegona and other legislators, prompting further queries on the source of the said funds.

“PAYE is supposed to be deducted from staff salaries. So, if URA made an audit and it was found that the said taxes were not deducted from the employees, let us know where you got the money that you paid to URA?” Ssegona directed.

Earlier, Mugisha explained that the money was got from the salary budget but later rescinded his submission saying the Shs368m was got from the Authority’s collections.

Upon further Cosase interrogations on the likely financial implications of paying PAYE from the Authority coffers, Mugisha reversed his statement as he asked for more time to scrutinize his documents before providing a decisive answer on the source of the Shs368m.

“I am giving you between today and Wednesday to explain where you got the money to pay PAYE which was not deducted from the employees,” Ssegona told UWA officials.

 “If you used collections to pay what would have been paid by employees, this means you caused financial loss to the government because you did not get permission,” he held.

The URA audit of UWA for Financial Years (FY) 2017/2018 to 2021/2022 revealed that the latter had faulted on PAYE taxes worth Shs368m, Shs300m income tax and Shs5b Value Added Tax, among others.

Meanwhile, Cosase on Monday also grilled UWA officials on other issues like understaffing, overspending, failure to remit game parks’ collections and accumulating rent arrears, among others.

UWA officials are expected to answer queries related to gorilla tracking permits, reasons for delayed procurement, failure to use World Bank funds and internal audit glitches when they face Cosase again on February 21.

Last year, media reports indicated that government is likely to have lost billions of money in a racket scam which involved fraudulent sale of gorilla tracking permits.

In his 2023 audit report, auditor general John Muwanga revealed that UWA deliberately failed to produce the necessary documents subjecting gorilla tracking for scrutiny.

Muwanga noted that although over Shs22b is reported to have been collected by UWA from Gorilla and Chimpanzee tracking in the FY2022/23, the authority did not provide financial transaction records such as payment receipts, invoices and other documents