Hundred of South Sudanese refugees arrive at Elegu Reception Centre in
Amuru District in July last year. A UN audit has unearthed shocking
fraud in operations of its refugee agency in Uganda. PHOTO | JULUIS
OCUNGI | NMG
A United Nations internal audit has unearthed shocking fraud in
operations of its refugee agency in Uganda orchestrated in inflated
purchases, unaccounted for payments and outright theft of money
purportedly spent on buying property that do not exist.
“The
weak risk culture and internal control environment in the UNHCR
operations in Uganda contributed to serious risk management and control
deficiencies and accountability lapses in operational and administrative
activities, which adversely affected the Representation’s ability to
meet its objectives, including in terms of the emergency response,” said
Eleanor T. Burns, the Director of Internal Audit Division of Office of
UNHCR.
The audit unearthed multiple areas of
mismanagement including a $7.9 million contract for road repairs awarded
to a contractor with no experience in road construction.
The probe also questioned payments to trucks and bus companies worth $7.7 million.
The
audit noted “pervasive non-compliance with regulations on vast sums
spent on water trucking and UNHCR paid at least $10m more VAT than it
needed to.”
The investigation also found a stockpile of
idle goods including 288,000 blankets and 50,000 wheelbarrows.
Besides15,000 solar lamps worth $279,860 went missing with no proper
investigations done.
According to the audit findings, UNHCR’s expenditure in Uganda
skyrocketed from $125m in 2016 to $205m in 2017, with Britain, EU,
Germany, and the United States contributing 80 percent of the funds.
Numbers
The
audit found that from 2015-2017 UNHCR paid the government $14.6 million
to set up and run a new refugee registration platform.
However
the influx of the refugees overwhelmed the system in 2017 and the
refugee agency added $11 million to procure a new biometric registration
system. The audit said UNHCR rarely had access to the data required for
planning and verification.
The audit also showed a
range of inappropriate arrangements between the Uganda UNHCR and the
Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) took place where UNHCR agreed to
contract three underqualified local NGOs recommended by Kampala, one of
which had defrauded UNHCR before.
The agency also reportedly paid $2,000 a month to senior Ugandan officials and provided them cars and fuel.
In
addition, the OPM had not reimbursed UNHCR $250,000 of excess fuel
used. UNHCR also paid $283,000 to subsidise the costs of 72 civil
servants whose work contracts could not be shown to the auditors.
The
audit says the UN refugee agency paid OPM to buy a plot of land
adjacent to the OPM office at an inflated cost of $320,000, more than
double the government’s valuation, with OPM failing to produce even a
title deed to prove ownership.
Recommendations
In the wake of the findings, the audit made a number recommendations to address the issues identified.
The
auditors said the UNHCR in Uganda should ensure full compliance with
the partner selection process; and develop and implement a strategy for
building capacity of local partners; implement procedures to ensure
procurement is designated to partners after assessing the comparative
advantage of doing so and their capacity to conduct large procurement;
and more effectively monitor compliance with relevant procurement rules.
The
audit report also says the UNHCR should adequately plan and coordinate
project monitoring activities between its different functions and
offices to ensure that risk based monitoring plans are implemented.
The UNHCR in Uganda did not responded to questions on the issues raised by the audit.
However,
in a general response to the auditors, the refugee agency admitted
lapses in the implementation of its programmes and said measures were
being put in place for redress.
Uganda hosts refugees
who fled war majority of whom are from neighbouring South Sudan and some
from Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.
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