Women pack mukene (silver fish) at Nkata Landing Site in Bugaya
Sub-county, Buyende District.Shs187 million will be spent on a mukene
project. FILE PHOTO
By Chris Obore
Posted Sunday, September 15 2013 at 01:00
Posted Sunday, September 15 2013 at 01:00
Kampala- Even as government
claims there is no money to increase salaries for each primary teacher
by an average Shs40,000 it has emerged that the State pays out billions
of shillings annually to several projects that exist only on paper in
various ministries and public agencies.
An analysis of the first quarter 2013/14 Budget
published in the media by the Ministry of Finance indicates that close
to Shs2 billion is going to projects that either do not exist on the
ground or are duplicated across different government departments and
ministries.
The projects, originated by the government
departments and approved by the national planning committee, continue to
draw money from the Treasury under the Public Investment Plan even
after they have ceased operations. For instance, up to last financial
year, government was allocating money for purposes of establishing a
Civil Aviation Authority which has been in existence since 2004.
The ministry of Finance closed some of the suspicious projects in the 2012/13 financial year. However, our investigations show that some more dubious programmes have received monies in the current 2013/14 financial year.
The ministry of Finance closed some of the suspicious projects in the 2012/13 financial year. However, our investigations show that some more dubious programmes have received monies in the current 2013/14 financial year.
Secretary aware
Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi acknowledged the existence of some programmes that duplicate activities and some that can be described as “white elephants”.
“Yes, in this year’s budget we cut off 60 projects that were doing nothing. Somebody must account for that money,” he said.
Mr Muhakanizi, who looked surprised after the Sunday Monitor presented to him a list of projects his ministry had released money to, yet they did not seem to exist on the ground, said time had come for a review of every project government releases money to.
Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi acknowledged the existence of some programmes that duplicate activities and some that can be described as “white elephants”.
“Yes, in this year’s budget we cut off 60 projects that were doing nothing. Somebody must account for that money,” he said.
Mr Muhakanizi, who looked surprised after the Sunday Monitor presented to him a list of projects his ministry had released money to, yet they did not seem to exist on the ground, said time had come for a review of every project government releases money to.
“Thank you [Sunday Monitor] for bringing this to
my attention; now our transparency programme is bringing good feedback,”
said Mr Muhakanizi who had on August 17 published the First Quarter
releases of funds to different government departments.
Asked to explain whether projects like Kabale Tea
Factory and Uganda Meat Exports Development Project exist, he said:
“Kabale Tea Factory does not exist. We are only giving seedlings to a
man called Musinguzi; that money must be accounted for.”
When asked to prove whether the Meat Export
Project exists, Mr Muhakanizi admitted that although the project had
received Shs253 million in the latest fund release, he had personally
never known what it does. “I am involved in meat and animal breeding but
I also have never seen what the project does. I agree we must change.”
Most of the suspicious projects are under the
Ministry of Agriculture. Some questionable projects that received money
in first quarter include: Poverty Alleviation Project under State House
(Shs312m), Value Addition Tea Industry (Shs150m), Plan for National
Agriculture Statistics (Shs181m) — UBOS does the same job — and
Improvement of Food Security in cross-border districts (Shs26m).
Other projects are: Marketing Agricultural
Production in Northern Uganda (Shs1 billion), Uganda Good Governance
(Shs130.8m), Kabale Tea Factory (Shs266m), Export Goat Breeding and
Production (Shs406m) and Increasing Mukene (silver fish) for Human
Consumption (Shs187m).
The junior minister of Agriculture, Mr Bright
Rwamirama, said yesterday he did not have specifics of the projects or
the money allocated but referred the matter to the permanent secretary,
Mr Vincent Rubarema – the accounting officer – who was reportedly on
leave. He added: “How do you expect the projects to start or get
completed if the money has not been sent or fully utilised?”
He said on Friday, Agriculture ministry officials
had a meeting with officials from the Finance ministry and they never
raised the issue of these projects. The minister, Mr Tress Bucyanayandi,
did not pick or return our repeated calls, nor did the undersecretary,
Mr Collins Dombo.
The Sunday Monitor established that the government
has numerous suspicious projects receiving funds annually without
recognisable outputs. Some projects like Poverty Alleviation in State
House and Goat Project in Sembabule were politically engineered and
continue to draw billions of shillings annually from the national
treasury even when there is little or no evidence of value for money.
The Sembabule Goat project has, in fact, asked for more funding even when huge questions hang on its justification and output.
In a report, a copy of which the Sunday Monitor
has obtained, Mr Paul Ssembeguya, the Goat Project managing director,
says part of his activities is monitoring the National Agricultural
Advisory Services (Naads). “We request for front loading (sending money
in advance) to ease the implementation,” reads his report. The same
project recently came under questioning by Parliament.
Our investigations also found out that technocrats
in several government departments had resorted to generating
high-sounding projects on paper to attract funding from the State but do
little or nothing at all on the ground.
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