Legislators on the committee expressed concern over unspent funds meant for pensions in the Education Ministry totaling to Shillings 5.8bn which were swept back to the consolidated fund. The committee chairperson Nandala Mafabi raised a suspicion that the funds could have been budgeted for 'ghost' beneficiaries.
Members
of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament have been alarmed by a total of 5.8billion Shillings meant for payment of pensions in the Education Ministry that
was never disbursed to the beneficiaries.
The
funds were appropriated in the financial year ending June 2019 to pay 425
pensioners but according to the auditor general’s report was returned to
the consolidated fund.
MPs
expressed concern about the matter while meeting officials from the ministry on
Friday led by the permanent secretary Alex Kakooza to respond to queries in the
report.
The
auditor general recorded a total of unspent balances amounting to Shillings
13bn that were swept back to the consolidated fund at the end of the financial
year.
Nandala
Mafabi was furious as to why the ministry let frail and old pensioners suffer
without their benefits.
Kakooza
explained that the 425 pensioners were never paid due to un-validated records, invalid or inactive supplier numbers, lack of life certificates and survivor
benefits exceeding 15 years.
The
commissioner Human Resource Jane K Mwesigwa labored to explain that the
ministry had carried out a verification exercise on the 425 beneficiaries and
only 35 were validated and reinstated on the payroll. She insisted that the
ministry had saved government from loss of funds.
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in: “That’s what…………”
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out: “……………….job.”//
But Nandala
quizzed her on why the ministry had budgeted for the funds with the knowledge
that the beneficiaries had queries. He raised a suspicion that the
beneficiaries could have been ghost pensioners.
Kakooza
explained that the list had been inherited from public service when paying of
pensioners was decentralized in 2016/2017, so the ministry had to carry out its
own validation exercise.
//Cue
in: “When it…………..”
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out: “…………good job.”//
One
of the other items for which funds were never spent was the National High
Altitude Training Center for which 4.1billion Shillings was returned.
Kakooza
argued that the funds could not be effectively absorbed because of the slow
progress of works caused by adverse wet weather and bad road conditions which
hindered transportation of the necessary project materials to the site to
facilitate smooth implementation of the work.
