Kamya orders forensic audit into UBOS operations
Uganda Bureau of Statistics head offices in Kampala. PHOTO | COURTESY
The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Beti Olive Kamya, has directed the Office of the Auditor General (AG) to carry out a forensic audit on Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) operations.
Sources privy to the matter told Daily Monitor yesterday that the IGG wants auditors to ascertain whether more than Shs1b earmarked for the implementation of the third phase of the Energy for Rural Transformation (ERT III) survey was spent appropriately.
It is alleged that some officials at the statistics body diverted funds and forged field trips for the survey, forcing dissatisfied staff to petition the IGG.
Ms Kamya confirmed her directive, but declined to divulge into details, saying the inspectorate’s investigating officers are working with the auditors to verify the allegations.
“Our investigating officers are in touch with the AG’s office on the same matter and they are proceeding well with it,” she said last week.
We were unable to get a comment from the AG’s office even when officials asked us to send our inquiries by email.
The head of communications, Ms Gloria Namugera, asked us to text our inquiries to her but she didn’t reply to our messages. Our follow-up calls to her cellphone went unanswered.
But an official, who preferred anonymity, said a team of auditors has been constituted to audit Ubos.
Project
The ERT is a government programme funded by the World Bank that started in 2001 to address low industrialisation, unemployment and slow socio-economic transformation associated with inadequate infrastructure particularly, energy.
The main objective of the ERT III, which was rolled out in 2018, was to benchmark the status of the on grid energy connectivity, access, use and welfare of individuals and communities before implementation.
During implementation of the survey, Ubos undertook the component of data collection, entry analysis, analysis and report writing.
A report of the survey was produced in 2019, and was signed by the then executive director, Dr Chris Mukiza.
According to the report, a centralised approach to data collection was employed with at least 10 mobile teams deployed to different areas.
However, this publication has seen a June 26, 2020 call-off order of Shs91m under a framework contract for the hire of field vehicles for the survey yet the same study had been carried out two years earlier.
The chairperson board of directors at Ubos, Dr Albert Byamugisha, acknowledged that Ubos conducted the survey but declined to comment on the issue of the forensic audit, saying his role is not technical but supervisory.
