The University officials had appeared before Parliaments Public Accounts Committee this morning to respond to queries raised by the Auditor General in his report for the financial year 2017/2018. The institution’s financial statement indicated total receipts of 67.2 billion Shillings for the financial year under review, yet expenditure stood at 77.1 billion Shillings.
The management of Makerere
University Business School-MUBS has failed to explain the source of 9.9 billion
Shillings that was spent over and above the institutions’ allocated budget.
The University officials had
appeared before Parliaments Public Accounts Committee this morning to respond
to queries raised by the Auditor General in his report for the financial year
2017/2018. The institution’s financial statement indicated total receipts of
67.2 billion Shillings for the financial year under review, yet expenditure
stood at 77.1 billion Shillings.
MUBS Bursar Michael Ruhigwa explained
that the 9.9 billion Shillings extra expenditure was arrears accumulated in the
previous financial year.
However, this explanation was
rejected when MPs pointed out that the total arrears indicated were only 6.4 billion
Shillings. According to the MPs’ part of the arrears, was a 3.9 billion
Shillings remittance from the treasury to pay an advance from the previous year,
but the recorded debt to the treasury was much lower at 3.1 billion Shillings.
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PAC Chairperson Nathan Nandala
Mafabi demanded to know where the extra funds had been obtained from. Mafabi suggested
that the MUBS team is given more time to reconcile their accounts and come up
with a balanced statement by close of business on Monday.
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This is the second time that the
authenticity of MUBS accounts is questioned. In August, the University
officials were turned away by the committee for presenting inconsistent
Statements of Accounts.
The officials then could not
explain why they had received more money than they had budgeted for from the
treasury as highlighted in their Statement of Accounts.
Out of the total appropriated
a budget of 74.8 billion Shillings as highlighted in their statement, the
institution received 87.7 billion Shillings well over the budget approved by
Parliament. But MUBS Principal Wasswa Balunywa
had no response as to the fate of the unspent and retained balance of 3.4
billion Shillings.
However, on their return today,
these figures had been reportedly reconciled but to the surprise of the
committee, the officials could again not defend them.
