Former PS Kivumbi to face MPs over Shs40b query

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will summon Mr Kagole Kivumbi, the former Judiciary permanent secretary, to account for billions of shillings in suspicious expenditures during his tenure as the entity’s accounting officer.
He will be asked to explain the missing bank statements for expenditure of up to Shs38b in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial year and other suspicious transactions, which involve huge cash withdrawals from the Judiciary accounts.

The committee chaired by Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West, FDC) discovered yesterday that most accountability documents submitted by the Judiciary were not backed by reconciled bank statements.
According to the Chief Registrar, Ms Esta Nambayo, the money was sent to finance different court activities across the country.
“We want to know whether the money was received and used as planned. We also want to confirm if the judges prepare accountability for all public finances they receive,” Mr Nandala said.

The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) requires accounting officers to reconcile bank transactions before they can receive more funds from the Treasury. But for the Judiciary, funds kept coming through even without such reconciliations. This too is an area of concern to PAC.
“We want to tell the public that even if you are a judge, you have to account for all taxpayers’ money that you receive,” Mr Nandala said.

Suspicious transactions
The committee also discovered that a number of suspicious transactions were executed in the last days of last financial calendar. In this case, money from the Bank of Uganda accounts would be sent to those of commercial bank as committed funds.
According to PFMA, funds that have been committed for use cannot be drawn back to the Consolidated Fund. Under the circumstances, according to Mr Nandala, “it would be easier for the accounting officer to channel the money through commercial banks to stand as committed funds before it could be drawn for ulterior use”.
For instance, on June 23, 2018, Shs275m was withdrawn to facilitate both the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice to travel to Australia from June 28 to September 15, 2018.
Mr Nandala said: “Can the Chief Justice and Deputy travel together to the same place at the same time?”

No answer came through from the Judiciary team, which was comprised of Mr Pius Bigirimana, the new permanent secretary.
PAC also noted that during the time the top Judiciary bosses were in Australia as reported, money was drawn on June 23, 2018, purportedly for their internal travel to Arua, Gulu and later to Cape Town in South Africa. On that day, Shs700m was withdrawn from the Judiciary accounts.
“The issue is; can somebody be travelling to Gulu or Arua but at the same time be in Australia and also in Cape Town? We want to establish this because you never know. Some people might have many bodies,” Mr Nandala mused.

Mr Bigirimana finally opened up and said: “I can only take notes, but I can’t answer these questions. The people who were in office are still alive, please call them, let them answer,” he said.
In July, Mr Kivumbi was replaced by Mr Bigirimana. At the time PAC was investigating Mr Kivumbi for alleged diversion of Shs32b.
Mr Bigirimana promised to follow up transactions relating to operations of courts and also take “administrative action against officers who failed to account for the money.”

[email protected]