Cash News
Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has ordered the minister of Finance to explain why he permitted payment of Shs14.6 billion bonuses to staff at Uganda and Revenue Authority (URA) over and above the requested funds and without parliamentary approval.
Ms Among’s directive followed a report by the Public Accounts Committee-Central Government on the Auditor General’s finding on treasury operations and consolidated financial statements of the government presented before Parliament on Wednesday.
“The Auditor General discovered during audit that URA requested and paid Shs1 1.638 billion as bonus for the period 2021/2022 for meeting the revenue target for the 2021/2022 financial year,” the Committee chairperson, Muwanga Kivumbi, said
He added: “Although the minister of Finance Planning and Economic Development permitted the accounting officer to retain Shs14.676 billion, subject to subsequent parliamentary approval, there was no evidence that the parliamentary approval was granted, making this bonus payments irregular.”
Staff at URA are entitled to bonuses whenever the set revenue collection target for a given year is met and surpassed, but contention arose due to the variance in the figure.
Contention arose following discrepancies in the figures paid out. They were higher than the actual figure requested .
“URA requested for Shs11.6 billion as bonus but the minister permitted them to retain Shs14.6 billion. I need that clarification. So the additional Shs3 billion is from where?” Mr Richard Gafabusa, Bwamba County MP, wondered.
“That question can best be answered by the minister,” Speaker Among said, in reference to the varying numbers, and consequently ordered the minister for Finance to furnish the House with a response on the matter, and others concerning the management of the country’s finances as raised in the report.
“I expect the minister of Finance to bring a response to this House …We must have a response with the figures,”Ms Among said.
The commissioner general of URA, yesterday told this publication that he needed to peruse the report before he could comment on the variations and maintained that any expenditures at the Authority are done with approval by the minister.
The Auditor General, in the report for the year ending June 2023 flagged the payment as irregular because it bypassed established procedures. The Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury (PS/ST) had told the auditing team that the approval process for the supplementary request was not completed in time.
“I advised the PS/ST to always initiate all such requests for parliamentary approval, in good time, to allow the subsequent processes at Parliament to be undertaken so as to complete the approval process,” the Audit report stated.
The Committee has recommended prohibitive action to be taken against the minister, for “the sheer disregard and disdain of parliamentary processes by the Executive through acts that borders usurping of its mandate”.
“This has been on the increase lately, especially by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and it is the opinion of this Committee that this amounts to contempt of Parliament as defined under Rule 224 of our Rules of Procedure,” the report said.
It added: “For irregularly retaining and paging Shs14.676 billion as bonus to LIRA staff, the Accounting Officer of Consolidated Accounts of Government should be sanctioned, severity of which can be decided by this House. This is to deter him from further acting in contempt of this House.”
Finance ministry spokesperson Jim Mugunga said: “The ministry is aware that a special bonus scheme exists to enable URA perform up and above set targets…The ministry is aware that any rewards/ payments related to the bonuses due are undertaken within the governance structure and must follow the approval system as laid down