The inspectorate of government (IG) last Friday lost Shs 18.4 million after an accountability dialogue at Kabira country club in Kampala flopped due to poor attendance.
Officials from the IG office said they had paid for breakfast, lunch and snacks for 130 people of which 107 were MPs. However, the IG office was forced to call off the meeting after opening remarks from parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, Ethics and Integrity minister Simon Lokodo and Inspector General of Government (IGG) Irene Mulyagonja because of the small number of participants.
Kadaga, who arrived on time for the 8am to 4:15pm meeting, made her speech to a largely-empty hall that had only one MP (Michael Tusiime of Mbarara municipality), some officials from the IG office led by deputy IGG George Bamugemereire and a handful of journalists.
After Kadaga’s speech, officials called for a break as they waited for more participants to turn up. Thereafter, Mulyagonja spoke about the mandate and role of the IG, and was followed by Lokodo.
By that time, eight more MPs had turned up. These were Julie Mukoda Zabwe (Mayuge Woman MP), Vincent Woboya (Budadiri East), Anita Among (Bukedea Woman), Esther Davinia (Nakapiripirit Woman), Gaffa Mbwatekamwa (Kasambya), Fred Turyamuhweza (Rujumbura), Francis Takirwa (UPDF) and Hood Katuramu (PWDs-Western).
However, with the numbers of attendees still small by the time the discussions were scheduled to begin, Bamugemereire unceremoniously wound up the meeting at 10:45am and wished everyone a good day.
The Observer learnt that Kabira country club charges $37.17 (about Shs 135,000) per person for a meeting attended by more than 11 people. This means that the IG office lost around Shs 17.5m for the 130 guests it had planned to host.
Nonetheless, at least nine MPs in attendance demanded and received their ‘fuel refund’ of Shs 100,000 each, taking the total amount spent to Shs 18.4m. MP Among defended her colleagues who did not turned up, saying they had other engagements.
The deputy spokesperson of the IG, Farouk Kayondo, said the meeting had been funded by their partners under the Strengthening Uganda’s Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime (SUGAR) programme.
The objectives of the dialogue included helping the respective committee members and the IG office to understand each side’s mandate and role, as well as forging a complementary working relationship between the IG and the accountability committees of parliament.
In her remarks, Kadaga asked Mulyagonja to investigate cases of Chinese contractors defrauding the country. Recently, the Parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) found that government had lost Shs 60bn to Chinese contractors through compensation of persons affected by road construction projects.
Kadaga said people involved in such scams must be prosecuted for theft of money that would otherwise improve the lives of ordinary Ugandans.
“We need a follow-up and prosecute the people taking this money,” she said. “We have so much money in this country and if there was no corruption, we would not even need donor money.”
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