Shs596m missing in Kiira Motors project

An audit report reveals that more than Shs596 millions meant for Makerere University’s engineering flagship project, Kiira Motors, has been mismanaged by the Centre for Research in Transportation Technologies (CRTT).
A draft audit report of the activities of the company by the university’s Directorate of Internal Audit for the financial year 2017/2018, says the money was not accounted for or were spent on mysterious deals.
The audit was spearheaded by Mr Walter Yonac Nono, the director of internal audit.
The Makerere University financial procedures manual 2014 requires that advances should be accounted for within 14 days of the completion of activity, or not later than 60 days.
The report also indicates that Shs389.2 million was used to pay tuition for 12 students at top universities abroad without any students signing bonding agreement.
The public standing orders require a public officer going for a training to sign a bonding agreement with the sending organisation.

Anomaly
The report also says the students were not contracted, contrary to the law which requires beneficiaries of long training to be on permanent employment.
The auditors did not also find any leave form signed by the students.
The audit report also says another Shs27.3m in tuition and reading materials was paid out to individuals and not the awarding institutions.
The report says the money paid to an institution was only Shs5.1 million while Shs15.5 was paid to an individual who was the course beneficiary.
The audit report observed that a lot of money was paid out to individuals working with CRTT instead of the company’s account.
The audit also recommends that the money that was paid twice for certain commodities and those not accounted for must be recovered.
Makerere University secretary confirmed the report but said it was only a draft audit report, which was sent to the Kiira Motors project chief, Mr Paul Musasizi, for clarification.

About Kiira Motors project
But our efforts to reach Mr Musasizi were futile as our repeated calls to his known telephone contacts went unanswered.
Kiira Motors, is the brainchild of Makerere University supported through the Presidential Initiative for Science and Technology Innovation to champion Value Addition in the Domestic Automotive Industry for job creation and diversification of the economy.
CRTT is supposed to champion research and development of eco–friendly transport solutions for Africa.
In 2010, the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) on behalf of the government, handed over 100 acres of land to CRTT in the Jinja Industrial park, located in Kagogwa village to host a production plant for the Kiira Electric Vehicles (Kiira EV) on 50 acres, while the other 50 acres was set aside as testing ground for the vehicles.