Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has said it is to name and shame accounting officers of different ministries who performed poorly last financial year.
During a press conference held at Parliament on Monday, the committee who were presenting a report of PAC on the Auditor General's report on the health sector in the financial year 2014/2015, stated that no accounting officer who has been performing in the worst manner will go unmentioned.
PAC Chairperson, also Soroti Woman MP Angelline Osegge, said they will put some parameters for naming and classifying the performance of accounting officers, adding that top performers will also be recognised.
She says some accounting officers are only being recycled instead of being disciplined, but as parliament they have made recommendations that those affected be removed. She specifically pointed at the Ministry of Health and that of Local Government accusing them of gross misconduct and lack of professionalism.
Osegge argues that some accounting officers should be fired while others should be made to pay for the losses they have caused.
The committee vice chairperson, Gerald Karuhanga, also Ntungamo MP said this will look at institutions and their accounting officers and issues like mischarge, undeclared funds, and unaccounted for funds. Karuhanga states that if the poor performers escape justice, they should be brought to light so pressure can be mounted on them.
The committee also stated that a Forensic Audit on the funds that are returned from the different ministries and sectors should be done, stating that the whereabouts of these monies are not known.
Osegge noted that some accounting officers send money days to the deadline with expectation that the money will be returned automatically to the Ministry of Finance if it is not used.
The committee reports that in some cases funds are lying idle in ministry coffers and yet people do not have the required services.
Karuhanga says such accounting officers should be held responsible to explain such scenarios. Karuhanga also notes that in some cases, the sources of funding have not been declared by Government officers.
He cites for instance the Uganda Sanitation Fund Programme annual report for year 2014/2015 which revealed that the source of about two billion shillings could not be ascertained at the ministry of health.
