A 2015 report by the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda has shown that Parliament has failed to adhere to recommendations by the Auditor General’s Office in regard to corruption. recommendation
The report is titled ‘Compliance of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government to the Auditor General’s Audit Reports and Recommendations.’
It says that though parliament has an obligation to discuss the reports issued by the office of the Auditor General to ensure recommendations are implemented to bring about efficiency in service delivery, the august house has failed to adhere to this obligation.
“The reports by the Auditor General’s Office are not discussed within the prescribed time whereas the Parliamentary Accounts Committee has not produced any final report on the Auditor General’s annual report since 2008/09,”reads part of the report released on Friday afternoon at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
“The Local Government Accounts Committee (LGAC) under Hon. Geoffrey Ekanya presented one report (for 2000/01) and left 4 others. The LGAC under Hon. Abdul Katuntu presented Ekanya’s draft reports and left 5 other reports in draft form.”
The report highlighted a big time lag between consideration and adoption of various reports as presented to parliament, citing the 2010/11 PAC special audit report on financial impropriety in the Office of the Prime Minister adding that it took over one year for parliament to implement the recommendations in the report.
According to the findings, a lot of reports had not been discussed, while the recommendations by the Auditor General were ignored by the August house.
It pointed out that accountability was frustrated by the processes in parliament because government was in this situation not able to respond to parliamentary reports as regards the findings and recommendations made by the Auditor General’s office.
“The challenges were a stumbling block to efficient service delivery of the people and these were found crosscutting all the sectors,” reads the report.
In response, the current chairperson of the Parliament Accounts Committee Hon. Alice Alaso said it is true there is a backlog as far as looking into the reports and recommendations by the Auditor General, attributing it to a number of reasons.
“Many of the MPs don’t have expertise as far as discussing the audit reports is concerned on top of the limited time we have while in parliament due to the busy schedule,” she noted.
Alaso was however quick to say that their efforts have on many occasions been frustrated by the political leadership.
The report recommended that committees responsible for dealing with Auditor General Reports be given full authority by the speaker of parliament so they can consider and conclude on the reports.
“Parliament should adhere to the constitution and handle Auditor General reports within the stipulated 6 months’ time otherwise at the lapse of this time it should be presumed that thy have been discussed and actions in response to the recommendations therein have been taken,” advised the report.