Shs10.6bn Supplementary to Lands Commission was erroneously Approved- Minister Kasaija
Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija has said that the Shs10.6 billion supplementary budget for Uganda Land Commission (ULC) to pay land claimants in Buganda and Bunyoro sub-regions in FY 2020/2021 was erroneously approved.
Kasaija apologized before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) saying the request for the supplementary was an illegality and was approved without following the rightful procedures in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act, 2015.
He was on 31st May 2022 appearing before COSASE which is investigating the origin of this supplementary after the Auditor General’s Report raised a red flag. Preliminary investigations show that the best legal procedures were flouted while processing this supplementary which was allotted to benefit six land claimants some of which were allegedly ghost beneficiaries.
Initially, Kasaija in his presentation said that supplementary was legal and binding and that it went through all the established government procedures in accordance with the law before it was approved. However, when the Committee interrogated him further on the legal procedures of initiating a supplementary, the minister was quick to apologize and accepted that there were some irregularities in the process.
“This supplementary was in error; it was not supposed to be initiated by the Minister of Lands. If you are to follow the law strictly then my Ministry should have rejected this and should not have approved it. It is the Uganda Land Commission that should have sent in the request [for a supplementary] and not the Minister of Lands,” Kasaija said.
According to Kasaija, the supplementary budget in question was initiated by the then Minister of Lands, Beti Kamya on 12th March 2021 who requested the Ministry of Finance to avail Shs10.62 billion for ULC to compensate six land claimants as reportedly directed by the President. However, he could not furnish the committee with the alleged letter from the president.
The six land claimants who benefited from the Shs10.6 billion supplementary are; Kasiya Rwabukurukuru (Shs6.43 billion), Stephen Peter Nagenda (Shs1.06 billion), Julius Busuulwa (Shs1.4 billion), Natalia Namuli (Shs1.6 billion), Yisaka Lwakana (Shs125.3 million), and Geoffrey Mugisha (Shs1.49 billion).
“I think we should ask Hon Beti Kamya to give us a copy of this letter from the president because I don’t have a copy but I will check if I was given one,” he said.
Kasaija faulted his technical staff for misguiding him into approving a supplementary request which was not initiated by the end-user agency. He further proposed that the Committee summons the then Secretary to the Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi to explain some of the illegalities surrounding the said supplementary.
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