A report by the Auditor General indicating that Luwero district authorities returned to the treasury over Shs 2.4 billion of unspent funds has infuriated members of the local community.
The unspent funds came into the limelight after the release of the AG report for the financial year 2019/20 in which the district leadership was faulted for failing to spend the funds, among other financial irregularities.
According to the breakdown of the unspent funds as obtained from the district finance department, a sum of Shs 1.570 billion was meant for wages, Shs 30.5 million had been allocated for development programmes. The others were donations amounting to Shs 15.9 million, Shs 436 million generated from local revenue and Shs 120 million from Uganda Road Fund among others.
Luwero district chairman Ronald Ndawula explains that money from the Road Fund was received a week towards the end of the financial year, yet other expenditures, although planned, could not be made before the completion of contracted work. The money meant for wages was unspent because the positions were still vacant.
Ndawula explains that although the AG's record is accurate, there were no cases of embezzlement or neglect of duty. But residents and district councillors insist that the act was a result of the negligence of duty which partly explains why funds are unspent.
Patrick Kisekwa, the district councillor for Makulubita sub-county says that apart from the selected release which was received within a week to the end of the financial year, the rest of the funds could have been utilized if the technical staff had planned well.
Kisekwa says this is the second time the district has returned unspent funds to the treasury and questions why other districts are not doing the same.
Aisha Kayaga, the district female councillor for Butuntumula sub-county says that the failure to utilize money denies the public the required services and there is no evidence that these will be brought back to do the same in subsequent financial years. Kayaga also faulted district officials for hiding information about unspent funds only for councillors to learn it from Auditor Genera's report.
Florence Namukasa, a resident of Luwero town expressed disappointment with the return of such huge sums of money to the treasury meant for wages yet there many educated youths who could take up jobs in the district and paid.
Namukasa says that the explanation given by the technical staff is not satisfying and that the government ought to penalize those who were responsible for recruiting the staff. Other residents decried the poor state of district roads and questioned why money for the construction works was not utilized.
The Auditor General also faulted Luwero district for failing to remit Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) worth Shs 90 million and delaying the access to the payroll for 48 pensioners and 28 unconfirmed pensioners.
But Bernard Okello, the Luwero district human resource officer says that evidence of remittance of PAYE has since been obtained from Uganda Revenue Authority and other issues raised by the Auditor General are being addressed. However, he said, these were not human errors but institutional challenges.
The Auditor General further faulted Luwero district for failing to recover Shs 1.146 billion Sunder the Youths Livelihood Programme. He also noted irregularities in the construction of latrines, schools and maintenance of roads under the Road Fund.
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