MPs grill UIA chiefs over excess money collection
Uganda Investment Authority Director General, Mr Robert Mukiza appearing before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) at parliament yesterday. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
The UIA officials led by their Director General Mr Robert Mukiza were appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) and are currently interrogating the findings unearthed in the Auditor General Report FY 2022/23
By ARTHUR ARNOLD WADERO
Top management of Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) on Tuesday had a tough time defending excess financial performance of the entity in the Financial Year 2022/2023.
The UIA officials led by Director General Robert Mukiza appeared before the Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (Cosase).
The MPs demanded to know why the UIA officials planned to collect a Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) of Shs418m but ended up collecting Shs460m in the year under review.
The queries on the surplus were raised in the findings of the Auditor General’s Report for the FY 2022/2023.
The Auditor General report said: “According to the approved NTR estimates for the FY 2022/2023, UIA budgeted to collect Shs418m during the year. However, by the end of the year, Shs460m had been collected, representing a 10 percent surplus.”
“Over collection of NTR at the vote level may be an indication that the NTR targets set were low compared to the Authority’s revenue potential,” the report added.
The MPs were also displeased to learn that during FY2021/2022 as the country weathered the effects of Covid-19; UIA managed to collect Shs435m in NTR.
But Mr Mukiza, in response to the Auditor General’s queries, pegged the ‘over performance’ on the stringent measures enforced by the UIA management.
The Auditor General report said: “The Accounting Officer explained that management instituted stringent measures in place such as undertaking field visits to engage investors with large outstanding revenue arrears and issued them with their updated statements…hence resulting in more collection of outstanding revenue.”
But the follow-up responses that UIA officials gave to the MPs seemed not ‘substantial’ to convince the Cosase members, who tasked the UIA officials to avail them the documents detailing the processes that informed the NTR targets that were set in the year under review.
IGG raid
When questioned on the raid of UIA by the Office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Mr Mukiza said his office is in full compliance with the IGG to support the investigations.
Last month, officials from the IGG acting on a tip-off, raided the UIA offices in Kampala to comb for evidence to back claims of bribery, and corruption, among others, leveled against UIA top management.
