Treasury to tighten safe locks

Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi appears before the Public Accounts Committee at Parliament recently. Mr Muhakanizi says cases of fraud will be under check since money will go through a few hands. PHOTO BY geoffrey sseruyange.

What you need to know:

The move to check cash flow in all government ministries and institutions, follows a recent scam in the Office of the Prime Minister that revealed a Shs50 billion loss.

Kampala

The financial mismanagement that has been recurrent in government institutions will be no more if the new measures the government has unveiled to avert the vice are to be followed.

The secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, told the Daily Monitor on Tuesday that they had put in place “tough measures” which must be adhered to by all government agencies. “We have installed spy cameras in key offices including Bank of Uganda and closed all dormant accounts that were used to abuse public funds. We now have one Treasury account for all government funds,” Mr Muhakanizi said.

He added that he had instructed the Auditor General to carry out an “expanded audit” of all government ministries, including the Ministry of Finance for transparency and accountability. The audit is already on-going and once the Auditor General’s report identifies any new offenders, they would be dealt with accordingly.

Mr Muhakanizi, whom, the Public Accounts Committee report accuses of giving open-ended authority to OPM officials to withdraw money above a set limit, said fraudsters in BoU used his letters to commit fraud.
He promised to write to the PAC chairperson and Solicitor General protesting the accusations. To stop ‘fraudsters’ in BoU, Mr Muhakazi said only accounting officers would be allowed to withdraw money from the bank and that the Governor must confirm and verify all the payments.

Accountability
Mr Muhakanizi noted that every week, the Governor is required to write to accounting officers to ascertain any payments and that for any expenditure above Shs50 million, the Governor must call the Accounting Officer before release.

Explaining the delayed salaries for some public servants such as police and others, Mr Muhakazi said the delay was part of the on-going changes in the payment system. “We have introduced a new payment system and everybody has now been transferred to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System,” he said, refuting claims that the problem stemmed from Finance.