The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee was shocked yesterday when officials from the Government Analytical Laboratory presented a fake land title for its head offices in Wandegeya-Kampala.
Led by the Director Kepher Kuchana, the team was thrown out on Wednesday by Legislators following audit queries raised in the 2013/14 Auditor General’s report that found that the entity isn’t in possession of its genuine land title.
Together with the team from Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kuchana presented the purported land title to the committee which was found wanting after thorough scrutiny.
The loopholes in the title were unearthed by the committee Vice Chairperson Gerard Karuhanga who found that the title didn’t bear the acreage of the land where the Government laboratories are sitting.
In his defense, Kachuna explained that the land didn’t bear details of acreage since it was acquired in 1962.
However, Masaka Municipality MP, Mathias Mpuuga shot Kuchana down telling him to admit he forged a land title to get off the hook with the inquiry.
“Some of us have handled land titles of all kinds and it is the first time I am seeing a land title that doesn’t have acreage. He is peddling a forged title that he can’t submit anywhere,” Mpuuga noted.
Left with no choice, Kachuna promised to return the land title back to the Uganda Land Commission to have what he deemed a mistake rectified.
The Government Analytical Laboratory top management was also ordered to refund Shs48M that was meant for the purchase of DNA reagents which were never purchased.
The Committee also ordered the Internal Affairs Undersecretary Aggrey Owunyi to refund a total of Sh637M that was budgeted for Amnesty Commission but was never disbursed.
This was after Owunyi failed to account how the money was spent and the particular activities that the money was spent on.