KAMPALA – Legislators on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have on Tuesday, September 10, quizzed officials from Uganda Police Force on the missing revenue collections amounting to UGX1.5Bn that was collected and never remitted to the consolidated fund.
The Police team led by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Sabiiti Muzeeyi had appeared before the Committee to respond to queries raised in the 2017/2018 Auditor General report that highlighted a number of discrepancies into the Police expenditures.
The Committee learnt that in two financial years, Police was remitting revenue collections less than they had collected with questions lingering on the whereabouts of the nations after the finance and accounts team of the Force failed to explain the mishap in remittances.
In one financial year, Police collected UGX23.141Bn but only remitted UGX22.449Bn leaving a balance of UGX692M unaccounted for.
In another financial year, Police retained UGX875Bn which they claimed was on transit before the close of the financial year but the money wasn’t reflected in the Police financial statements.
Hon Nandala Mafabi, the PAC Chairperson remarked, “It should have been UGX692m only ugx284M is seen which shows this money is somewhere, not in the coffers of Police. UGX23.141Bn of NTR was collected, you transferred UGX22.449Bn leaving a balance of UGX692M. We want to confirm that the money is on Police account. Your statement shows that you have UGX284M cash and cash equivalent. That shows Police must have kept money somewhere, we must find out who kept that money.”
Wilberforce Yaguma (Kashari North) wondered why Police would collect revenue and refuse to remit it directly to the consolidated fund as required by the law.
Aggrey Owiny, Under Secretary Ministry of Internal Affairs, told the Committee that there was an issue at time of consolidation of the funds with the Treasury with Police’s figures not having been consolidated with Bank of Uganda later asking Police to remit the funds.
His explanation raised questions amongst MPs with Nandala asking how the Treasury would ask for funds after issuing a receipt acknowledging receiving UGX875m, “Did Police forge this receipt? Why should Treasury demand from you when Treasury gave you the receipt?”
Police also failed to produce receipt proving the remittance of UGX629M and promised to produce the receipt, although the Committee also vowed to investigate the authenticity of the receipt from the treasury.
