URA Initially Asked For Shs117B in Presidential Handshake – Auditor General
URA Initially Asked For Shs117B in Presidential Handshake – Auditor General
By Serestino Tusingwire
Auditor General John Muwanga on Monday told the parliamentary committee investigating the UGX6bn payout that the Uganda Revenue Authority had initially sought a supplementary budget of Shs117 billion but the finance ministry only considered Shs6 billion.
Muwanga revealed that he received a letter from the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija on October 19, 2016 requesting for a supplementary budget of Ugx 117 billion for 2015/16 financial year and sought an audit warrant.
Asked by legislators on whether the AG’s office had conducted an audit on the Shs6billion, Muwanga said no pre-audit of the expenditure has been conducted yet.
He also revealed that the money was spent without receiving an audit warrant.
“The money had been spent by the time the Minister wrote to me,” the Auditor General stated.
The money that was later used to pay 42 government officials involved in the oil tax cases was considered urgent.
Later on the day, Bank of Uganda Governor, Emmanuel Mutebile, also appeared before the committee to give the MPs a breakdown of money so far received by government from oil related revenues.
A statement presented by BOU indicated that Uganda has so far received Ugx 2.4 trillion ($696 million) in capital gains tax and non-tax related revenue.
This also includes Ugx 10 billion related to mineral royalties, surface rentals, training fees from mineral exploration companies received through the Ministry of Energy.
However, legislators were not satisfied with the statistics and asked the central bank to reconcile its figures with the Ministry of Energy and make a more detailed report.