Explain Shs20b bills, Parliament tells army

Army officials have been given up to today to prove to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that bills to a tune of Shs20 billion were not fabricated to steal public funds.

Questions arose after Ministry of Defence officials failed to provide documentary evidence to corroborate claims by the defence permanent sectary, Ms Rosette Byengoma, that the arrears in question were genuine.

While Ms Byengoma promised to table evidence today, MPs led by PAC Chairman Nandala Mafabi questioned the army after it emerged that the alleged debts were not included in the ministry’s accounts. “We have rejected this Shs20 billion claim because as a committee we don’t have any evidence to prove that the army had any arrears in the year under review [2007/8],” Mr Mafabi said.

Charges await
“In fact, the accounts show that although Ministry of Defence was allocated Shs430.7 billion in the budget for 2007/8 only Shs430.4 was spent leaving a balance of about Shs375 million. We don’t see any debts and we have given them up to tomorrow to provide details, short of that, those involved will be charged for abuse of public funds.” But Ms Byengoma told the committee that all the debts were genuine and that such debts arose as a result of inadequate funding particularly food for soldiers and vehicle maintenance costs. “We are not hiding anything, these arrears are genuine and we have the documents. Due to underfunding, we have no option but to overspend beyond the approved budget.”

The Auditor General also noted that Ministry of defence continued to incur bills without confirming the availability of funds. For instance, during the financial year, the ministry received a total of Shs22.4 billion to settle arrears but only Shs17.7 billion was spent and the balance (Shs4.6 billion) was diverted to bills which had not been budgeted for and captured in the Treasury Data Bank.