The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on Local Governments was Tuesday October 3, 2023 shocked to learn that officials in Kaliro district opened up a pseudo general Fund account where government deposited funds meant for projects in the district and the officials swindled it.
Squeezed by the MPs, Kaliro Chief Administrative Officer Samuel Bigirwa ended up confessing that a group of his staff and top district leadership have been fraudulently sharing government funds.
He sterned the Committee when he revealed that he was aware that money to the tune of 10bn had been stolen in Kaliro since 2014.
He was asked to recover the money from the officials who swindled it.
The Committee is in Jinja City where they are interfacing with district authorities from all over Busoga to explain the queries in the Auditor General’s report of 2021/22.
Before questioning the Kaliro team, the Jinja City officials had failed to account for shs 250 million. The money which was a local revenue collection dissolved in thin air in the hands of officials at the city hall who failed to remit it to Jinja North and Southern Divisions accounts as prescribed by the law.
MPs including Noah Mutebi (Nakasongola County) and Lillian Paparu Obiale (Arua City) tasked Jinja Town Clerk, Edward Lwanga to account for the money with evidence but all was in vain.
Lwanga gave excuses that could not convince the Committee and he was dismissed with his group.
Jinja City was ordered to go with relevant documents and face the Committee in Kampala on a later date.
