MPs grill PS Bigirimana over youth funds

PARLIAMENT: The Permanent secretary in the Ministry of gender, labour and social development, Mr Pius Bigirimana had a rough day on Tuesday as lawmakers pressed him for answers on the Youth Livelihood Fund.
The PS failed to convince members on why the ministry has taken long to sweep out ghost beneficiary groups in the Fund.
Members on the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, acting on the 2015/16 and 2016/17 report of the auditor general learnt that the Youth Livelihood Programme lacked “proper accountability framework or detailed guidelines for accountability of the revolving funds.”

Consequently, the auditor general noted, “the implementing entities under the programme accounted for funds differently, which is not only a recipe for improper accounting for programme funds but also impedes comparability of accounting reports across the implementing entities.”

The report further noted that overall recoverability as at October 28, 2016 stood at Shs5.501 billion, only 39 percent of the Shs 14.2 billion that was due for repayment by the beneficiaries.
In his reply, Mr Bigirimana blamed the low rate of recovery on “the fact that the program had just started.”
The Youths Livelihood Programme was rolled out in 2014 and first recovery was expected in 2016.

Mr Bigirimana said that many projects were yet to yield to yield and still youth who had ventured in agriculture were affected by drought and fall army worms.

Meanwhile, Kasambya County MP Louis Mbwatekamwa accused the accounting officer of failure to wipe out corrupt officials within the ministry and local government administration units who ask for kickbacks from the beneficiaries.

“I agree because we have had cases of that nature but this programme is not a business of gender, it is a comprehensive programme involving districts and it should be a duty of the MPs to ensure that this does not happen,” Mr Bigirimana shot back.
He said in Katakwi District in eastern Uganda, the Usuk LC III chairperson was arrested over allegations of conspiracy to defraud the Fund Shs10 million, and at least Shs7 million was recovered.
He said similar cases had been recorded in Gulu and other districts and that action had been taken with several officers interdicted and under investigation.

The MPs also asked the PS to explain Shs527 million that the auditors registered as non-traceable.
The money was allegedly spent on ghost groups in 30 districts randomly sampled during the audit period.

Mr Bigirimana said this was a query for district accounting officers since payments are based of clearance by district authorities.
He however said that his docket has taken note of groups that collapsed or changed direction after receiving funds and had been captured as ghosts by the auditors.

“There were four categories,” said Mr Bigirimana, “those that changed course of business; those that changed physical location as well as groups that split immediately after formation and those that collapsed after their members got married.”
The officials failed to give an up to date status of the fund including amounts issued and debts due.

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