MPs vow to grill Minister Babalanda over UPPC mess

Lawmakers on the Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) have insisted that the Minister for Presidency Ms Milly Babalanda will have to appear before Parliament to respond to queries about the rot at the Uganda Printing and Publishing Cooperation (UPPC) as raised in the 2021/2022 Auditor General Report.

The resolve by the Committee chairperson, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi to compel Minister Babalanda to heed to Parliament’s summons came after she failed to appear before the same committee on Tuesday. The MPs had summoned MS Babalanda to appear before the committed Wednesday. She instead filed an apology through a letter that was read by Mr Ssenyonyi.

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"We sent summons to her to show up today [Tuesday]. I just received a letter this morning from the Hon Babalanda explaining a couple of things. She says 'I wish to inform you that I am unable to show up on the above mentioned dates due to the critical engagement I have on the matter of national IDs which requires my physical presence," Mr Ssenyonyi read.
Mr Ssenyonyi, however, insisted his committee would without fail ensure that Ms Babalanda appears before Parliament without fail and respond to the queries raised in the Auditor General’s report for the year under review.

"We are going to determine when we next have the minister because it is important that we have the minister come to this committee because she has a number of things to answer," Mr Ssenyonyi said before adding: "Today she might have given this excuse but we are going to have a quick reschedule of the minister to show up before this committee. She must be held accountable for all that she has been doing in this particular entity. So we are not going to allow that she runs away from scrutiny.”
The Nakawa West legislator said Ms Babalanda has to appear to respond allegations that she among other things exercised responsibilities beyond her mandate while overseeing activities at UPPC.
Part of what the committee is scrutinizing is illegal appointment of staff at the UPPC under Ms Babalanda’s watch. 
"She has been signing off documents as board Chairperson which position nobody appointed her to," Mr Ssenyonyi said.

On Tuesday, the committee commenced probe into the queries raised in the Auditor General Report 2021/2022 and thus invited the top management at the entity to respond to the queries. However, the team led by the acting managing director, Mr Kenneth Oluka and Company Secretary  Ms Connie Aryada failed to conclusively respond to concerns raised by the committee members. This prompted the lawmakers to question circumstances under which Mr Oluka was appointed.
Mr Oluka whose substantive appointment is the editor told the committee that he was appointed by Ms Babalanda, the minister for presidency. He said at the time he was appointed, all those occupying senior management positions had been interdicted and he was the only senior person left based on his experience.
“I can explain this. At the time, the former board had recommended me for senior management and I used to sit representing the editorial. During the same period, all the senior managers had been interdicted in 2021 and so the minister appointed me to act in that position,” Mr Oluka said.

However, legislators on the committee would have none of this. The UPPC Act gives the powers of appointment of the managing director to the board. They wondered where the minister derived the powers to act on behalf of the board to appoint a managing director.
The legislators also discovered that the minister signed on the financial statement as a board chair, a position that doesn’t belong to her in the Act.

Mr Twesigye Nathan Itungo, the Kashari County South Member of Parliament proposed that the team that had appeared be dismissed and ordered to appear with the minister so that she can explain how she appointed the managing director when she doesn’t have the powers.
“Chair I propose that we send these people back and they come together with the minister. We have seen anomalies where the minister appoints the managing director, who in turn appoints the company secretary, yet by law, all these positions are supposed to be appointed by the board,” he said.
Yusuz Nsibambi, the Mawokota South County Member of Parliament raised a number of issues, including calling the team masqueraders, which he later withdrew. He however, said the committee cannot continue engaging the team that does not have the legal mandate to represent the corporation.
“Mr Chair, I find it difficult for us to proceed with these people who cannot represent the UPPC. In the Act, the minister has no powers to appoint anyone in the corporation but she went ahead to appoint the acting manager. The acting manager also appointed the corporation secretary. You can imagine the two have now constituted themselves as the board and made appointments which is illegal,” Mr Nsibambi said.
Ssenyoni at this point agreed with his members and dismissed the team and asked them to report back alongside the minister Bablanda.

The queries
The 2021/2022 audit report had unearthed a number of flaws with the UPPC and made a qualified opinion on the books of account of the corporation. Mr John Muwanga, the Auditor General in his report said when UPPC entered into joint venture with a consortium of German companies to form the Uganda Security Printing Company Limited, the government entity invested Shs9.1 billion as valued by June 30, 2020. The audit report however, faulted the UPPC for not using the equity method as required by the standard.
“This implies that the statement of financial position is misstated and misleading to the users of the statement,” the report said.

The auditor also faulted the corporation for under declaring the tax liabilities. The report said while Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) revealed a tax liability amounting to Shs1.6 billion, the entity only declared Shs1.2 billion, resulting in a variance of Shs460.9 million.
The audit report also found out that the entity had failed to collect debts of up to Shs3.8 billion from its debtors, contrary to what the law says, allowing the entity to collect the debts promptly.
“The long outstanding receivables represent idle assets which may result into credit and liquidity risks thereby limiting the availability of funds for UPPC activities,” he said in the report.
The audit report also found out other anomalies, which the team will respond to today when they appear together with the minister.