Budget breaches follow Bigirimana to Judiciary

nKAMPALA- Newly appointed permanent secretary to the Judiciary, Mr Pius Bigirimana has been  grilled by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament over accountability queries at his former employment station.

As he walked into his new posting, Mr Bigirimana on Monday appeared before PAC which is chaired by Budadiri West MP Nathan Nandala Mafabi (FDC), to answer audit queries in the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

A number of budget queries were raised, including encroachment on Parliament’s appropriation function, poor absorption capacity of the budget and inflated declaration of returns on the Youth Livelihood Programme.

The committee pressed Mr Bigirimana to explain why shs3.7 billion was spent on domestic arrears instead of shs183 million that had been allocated by Parliament and no satisfactory answer came through.

Inside the committee room, Mr Bigirimana engaged the MPs and told them that he had spent the money on priorities that were affected by the arrears.

PAC members informed him that the practice is illegal and punishable under the Public Finance Management Act 2015.

Mr Bigirimana argued that the expenditure was made to contain pressure from utility service providers, mainly electricity, water and unpaid staff salaries.

Mr Kagole Kivumbi, whom Mr Bigirimana replaces as permanent secretary in the Judiciary, is on forced leave after recent accusations of diversion of government funds from the intended priorities to other expenditure lines.

Mr Mr Mafabi reminded Mr Bigirimana of the anomaly.

“So Mr Bigirimana, you went and chose to constitute yourselves into Parliament, organised for your own clerk and sergeant at arms to alter what we had done, where is a copy of your Hansard?” Mr Mafabi asked.

Mr Bigirimana turned to the Gender Ministry’s Principal Accountant, Ms Emily Birekeyaho for answers.

Ms Birekeyaho said they spent Shs3.7 billion on arrears contrary to a budget of Shs188 million.

When he was asked where he derived the authority to vary the budget, Ms Birekeyaho said arrears take first call on budget, but Mr Mafabi insisted she must present authority that allowed them to spend the money.

The committee also discovered that whereas the Ministry of Gender received Shs144 billion as cash limits for 2017/18, only Shs142 billion had been spent but there was no trace of the unspent balance.

Attempts by both Mr Bigirimana and his [now] former principal accountant Ms Birekeyaho to locate the money fell on hard rock.

As tension flared, Mr Bigirimana got consumed by anxiety and claimed his mind was preoccupied with duty at his new job. He claimed business in the Judiciary had come to a standstill because of his absence.

“Please kindly, if you can let me go sign off some payment, I am receiving messages, UMEME has switched off; the yaka is not on,” he told the committee.

He said the new accounting officer, Mr James Ebitu “has got what it takes to answer the queries. If he fails, I will come back and answer them.”

However, Mr Mafabi while allowing Mr Bigirimana to leave, told him that he would not escape accountability.

“Whatever went out under your hand, you will answer,” he said and tasked Mr Bigirimana to produce a detailed schedule for Youth Livelihood Fund, SAGE and Uganda Women Empowerment Programme of all districts, beneficiary groups and recovery level but did not give him a deadline.

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