Members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Local Government have recommended a forensic audit into the release of excess funds by the Ministry of Finance to Lyantonde district.
The recommendation results from the failure by the District Chief Administrative Officer to clarify the cause and expenditures of excessive funds released to the different departments of the district from the Ministry of Finance.
The Auditor General’s financial statement report for the financial year 2023/24 indicates that Lyantonde district received an excess of 234 million shillings, above its budget allocations from the treasury.
The auditors unearthed that for the last two financial years, the district has also been receiving an excess of 45 million shillings on its capitation grant allocations to the education department.
While appearing before the committee to respond to the audit queries, Edmond Ntimba, the Lyantonde District Chief Administrative Officer, noted that his office has never initiated the process for the release of the excess funds, arguing that he should not bear the liability of the errors.
He, however, told the committee that he had learnt about the disparity in the findings of the Auditor General and accordingly instructed the district’s internal auditor to take up the matter and provide a detailed report.
But upon a failure to present the report from the internal investigations, the committee decided to initiate a forensic audit into the anomaly, suspecting that it could be a plot for siphoning public funds by unscrupulous cliques in government.
Gilbert Oulanya, the Committee Chairperson and MP for Kilaka South, instructed the Police Crime Investigations Officers to record statements from Edmond Ntimba, the Lyantonde District Chief Administrative Officer and Medard Byarugaba, the District Education Officer, to aid in thorough investigations.
He indicates that the committee is going to recommend that a forensic audit be expanded to other local governments with similar inconsistencies in their budgetary releases, suspecting that there could be a racket that is exploiting the gap to steal government funds.
The committee observes that the release of excess funds above what is requested not only distorts budgetary planning but also starves other deserving entities, which may fail to implement their plan due to inadequate budgets or financial misallocation.
Meanwhile, Medard Byarugaba, the Lyantonde District Education Officer, says that inconsistency in their schools’ capitation grant allocation and the students’ enrollment could have been created by technical glitches in the digitalised Education Management Information System- EMIS, which has a lower number than the actuals in schools.
He says that they are currently entering the details of all pupils in the system to ensure that the number corresponds with the records across.