Finance probes UN Assembly teams’ expenses
Left to right: Minister for General Duties Justin Kasule Lumumba, Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, Foreign Affairs minister Jeje Odongo and Vice President Jessica Alupo during the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 78th Session on Monday. Photo/Courtesy of Mr Ayebare’s X handle
What you need to know:
- The news about the 71-member group, which this publication broke, attracted outrage among citizens as many believed that the billions splashed on allowances and travel expenses for the New York trip should have been ploughed into critical, but financially starved sectors of the economy.
Authorities at the Ministry of Finance are investigating the source of public funds spent on 71 government officials who last week travelled in two parallel groups to New York for the 78th United Nations General Assembly.
The two groups from the Office of the Vice President, Ms Jessica Alupo, and Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja are said to have spent more than Shs2 billion.
The news about the 71-member group, which this publication broke, attracted outrage among citizens as many believed that the billions splashed on allowances and travel expenses for the New York trip should have been ploughed into critical, but financially starved sectors of the economy.
In an interview with the Daily Monitor last evening, Mr Patrick Ocailap, the deputy secretary to the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED), had no kind words for the permanent secretaries who permitted the expenditure and explained that were waiting for the officials to return and provide source of the funding.
“As a Ministry we are waiting for the return of the various officers to see how much they spent on this summit, which is internationally observed every year. So, we want to see the expenditures from those sectors, look at the votes spent and how much they spent on this,” Mr Ocailap said.
He added: “I know of the fact that there were some residuals in these offices for probably travel abroad but we need to know what exactly was used to travel abroad and we shall make adjustments as we release the money for the next quarters.”
Mr Ocailap said in case of any wasteful expenditure outside the quarterly budget release, the concerned offices’ budgets for that vote will be re-adjusted during the release of funds for other quarters within the financial year.
This week, the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Muwada Nkunyingi, told journalists at Parliament that he will task the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain when the plenary sittings resume next week.
However, according to Mr Ocailap, some expenditures are not as wasteful.
He said: “It also depends on the operations of the institution, for example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and missions abroad, most of their expenditures are duty allowances abroad. You cannot call that wasteful expenditure because it’s in the course of their conduct of business.”
