The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, has stated that the Business Committee of Parliament will deliberate on a strategy to effectively address the Auditor General’s reports. He emphasized that the government can only act on the Auditor General’s recommendations once they have been approved by Parliament.
“If you wait four or five years to approve a report, how will you process a Treasury Memorandum, which is an action-taken report? However, a committee can form a subcommittee to review projects or MDAs. Once adopted by the committee, we can debate it here,” Tayebwa explained.
He provided this direction while presiding over the House on Tuesday, 21 January 2024. This followed a suggestion from Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju (FDC, Kira Municipality) to fast-track the adoption of the Auditor General’s report by the House before further committee investigations.
“We have been treating the Auditor General’s report as raw material for committees to act on. In other countries like Kenya, the report is adopted as soon as it’s presented, then committees are tasked with investigating specific areas,” Ssemujju observed.
Hon. Sarah Opendi, the Tororo District Woman Representative, raised concerns regarding the constitutional requirements for handling the Auditor General’s reports and the time allotted to committees. “The Constitution mandates that we must consider them within six months. But if committees are only given two or three months to handle them, and there are about 400 entities to review, how can we effectively manage and conclude the business?” Opendi questioned.
The Deputy Speaker acknowledged that the work of the standing committees, which review the Auditor General’s reports, was paused to prioritize the timelines for handling the Budget Framework Paper (BFP). “But now that the Budget Committee has begun receiving committee reports for the BFP, we expect to conclude by next week. Regarding time, we will revisit and discuss it administratively,” Tayebwa added.
Tayebwa also highlighted that the Auditor General has been urged to conduct value-for-money audits and special audits to produce a more comprehensive report for Parliament’s consideration. This approach would go beyond financial audits and address issues such as mischarges and value for money.
“If one kilometre of road costs Shs1 billion in Masaka, while a neighboring district like Lyantonde is constructing it for Shs500 million, both under similar conditions, the value isn’t being realized in Masaka. Accountability committees must now dig deeper,” said Tayebwa.
He also called on committees to become stricter with accounting officers, noting that only 31 percent of the parliamentary recommendations from the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2023/2024 had been fully adopted. Additionally, 35 percent were partially implemented, while 34 percent had not been acted upon at all.
