Police fail to account for over Shs100b

Members of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday grilled senior police officers over unauthorised Shs102b 2017/18 Financial Year budget overrun.
The lawmakers also accused the Force of failing to remit Shs1.2b collected in non-tax revenue in the same year to the Consolidated Fund.
Police, however, explained that they only fine and issue receipts for traffic offenders, and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) collects the cash pooled into the Consolidated Fund.
The law requires all non-tax revenue (fines and related fees) to be deposited in the national treasury.
The PAC chairperson, Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi, tasked the accounting officer, Mr Rogers Muhirwa, to explain the whereabouts of the money.
Kashari North MP Wilberforce Yaguma threw the spanner in the works when he said he had confidential information that a senior police officer had deposited huge sums of money on a personal bank account to rake in cash through interest.
“For the record, our non-tax revenue is collected by URA and at the end of the month, they tell us what they have collected and we harmonise the receipts,” Mr Muhirwa said.
He added: “If a member says the money is on somebody’s account, it is wrong because we don’t touch money; our role is to issue receipts and URA collects the money through different banks and later pays to the Consolidated Fund.”

Spending above budget
The committee discovered that police in that financial year spent Shs744b, above its Shs642b budget.
The MPs asked where and how the Force secured the extra Shs102b.
However, Mr Muhirwa said no actual cash was spent, but it was a book entry for already incurred but unpaid services such as electricity and water.
“You know we are underfunded; we are always funded 40 per cent and our numbers never reduce,” he said, adding: “We used more electricity than what had been planned and there is no way the accounting officer could switch off electricity or stop operations because of the budget.”
But Mr Muhirwa’s explanation did not convince the legislators and they asked him to provide proof for authorisation for police to pick goods and services on credit.
Such authorisation is given by the Finance Ministry permanent secretary and Secretary to the Treasury or in supplementary budget requests through Parliament.
Three supplementary requests were handled during the period and none was for police operations.
“You went and sat in the boardroom of Naguru (police headquarters) and constituted yourselves into Parliament because you knew you would come here and tell us your stories?” Mr Mafabi said.
Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga told the committee that similar responses have been given by the accounting officer overtime and they should be dismissed unless evidence is provided.
Still, the police top brass offered no answers.
Instead, the team that was led by the Chief Political Commissar, AIGP Asan Kasingye, asked the committee to allow them more time to organise their books.
The committee gave them two days and cautioned them against ‘manufacturing’ figures or tampering with accountability documents.

Overrun. The committee discovered that police in the 2017/2018 financial year spent Shs744b, above its Shs642b budget.