Sacked CAOs hit back at Muhakanizi

Kampala.

Sacked accounting officers have hit back at the Secretary to Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, saying his ministry should take responsibility for the system failures that made them to miss the deadlines for submission of accountability documents.
The Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs), who spoke to Daily Monitor yesterday said the new government accounting system has technical glitches that has made it difficult for them to do work. They indicated that the glitches were brought to the attention of Mr Muhakanizi and Local Government officials.
Mr Ismail Ochengel, the Arua CAO, said his district failed to meet the deadline because every time he attempted, he would find the system overcrowded and unable to log in, adding that “while the ministries are blaming the districts, there are a lot of capacity gaps.”
“That’s why we need facilitation in terms capacity building because it’s not only me the CAO who writes these reports. The CAO only plays the coordination role to ensure that all the heads of departments prepare their reports,” Mr Ochengel said.
“I want to encourage our superiors [Muhakanizi and others] to pick interests in these matters and find out why some of these districts are dragging their feet when it comes to reporting. This is the first time we are trying online reporting this would mean the process requires some type of capacity building.” On whether he agrees with the decision by the ministry of Finance to sack them, he said: “No problem the PS has the powers, I have no powers, I am waiting for the next action from them.”
Just like his counterparts, Mr Danstan Balaba, the CAO of Kabarole District, said his failure to submit the documents in time was due to technical hitches in the system.
“There has been a number of system errors in the reporting system we are using now. These system errors made it difficult for us to submit in time,” he said.
Mr Balaba said even those who submitted earlier are still being hunted for failure to submit, yet they had already completed their work.
Mr Milton Kato, the Gulu District CAO, said: “I am wondering why Gulu continues to appear on this list of the districts that did not comply yet we submitted all our accountability documents in time.”
Mr Geoffrey Okaka, the Nebbi District CAO, said he submitted his documents on March 15, a day before Mr Muhakanizi wrote the letter ordering their sacking.
He challenged the ministry to improve the efficiency of the system to accommodate more users at a go.