It is a bit abnormal that Government can go on for years having the Auditor General auditing and giving Audit Reports 2 - 3 years after funds are spent! This among other instances is reflected where the Auditors report for CHOGM 2007 is in Parliament now 3 years since the activities! It is not clear whether a serious Government should transact business that way.. It is also not clear why the Auditor General's office given the experience where many civil servants misuse office maintains auditing long after transactions have taken place, contrally to the practice in normal company undertakings; where transactions are audited prior to funds being spent/released. In order to save the poor country continued loss of colossal sums of money, the Auditor Generals office should change approach so that funds are saved instead of wasting money and man power to discover anomalies which would have been blocked and hence just tell the people about funds lost when it is almost impossible to recover the funds.
The Auditor General's Report for the year ended 30th June 1998, when President Museveni had spent 12 years in office has a few cases that show the fact that the country has overtime really lost money, and the magnitude may just be known if President Museveni is out of office.
1. The Bank of Uganda Reconciliation statement presented for audit had anomalies not credited in the cash book stated as shs 108,542,962,336 was not supported by documentary evidence. Second, it was discovered that a figure of shs 2,651,914,392 referred to as a weekly transfer of revenue, which should have been a credit, but was instead posted as a debit entry. No entry was made to reverse the anomaly!
2. A total of shs 11,513,367,856 and US $ 1,950,749.42 are shown as Government balances with closed banks. It is not known how these balances were recovered!
3. As at 30th June 1999, the Bank statement from Bank of Uganda showed an overdraft of shs 776,236,548,778 whereas the general ledger had a figure of shsh844,327,253,156. The difference of shs 68,090,704,378 was not reconcilled.
4. The Treasury records for the year ended 30th June 1999 showed an outstanding balance of shs 15,388,429,468 as its indebtedness to Bank of Uganda relating to Promissory notes. Bank of Uganda records however showed shs 18,182,857,841 a difference of shs 2,794,428,356 and no reconcilliation had been made to agree the two positions.
5. Government guaranteed a total of shs 45,269,940,389 to companies that were no longer in existence.
6. A number of Loans given to various Parastatals and other private companies were found to be non - performing. Out of a total of shs 974,568,943,367 (Principal) and shs 28,759,534,288 (Interest) outstanding at the beginning of the year, only shs 104,173,958,894 had been paid leaving a balance of shs 899,154,318,761 (Principal & Interest) still outstanding.
7. a total of shs 7,771,464,135 was still outstanding as at the end of 1998/99 financial year as loans lent by Government to various private sector companies, individuals and public corporations from the Japanese Grant, yet these loans had been outstanding for long and should have been settled by 1995!
William Kituuka Kiwanuka
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