By Mulengera Reporters
The Speaker of Parliament, Nalongo Anita Among has this Thursday morning thanked the Auditor General Edward Akol and his entire team for their selfless work which has seen the GoU save roughly Shs290bn in UMEME exit settlement. UMEME had a 20-year concession agreement for electricity distribution which commenced on 1st March 2005. This has come to an end and UMEME had claimed payment from the GoU to recoup some funds as they exit the power distribution business.
Their claim, which even the relevant government MDAs had authenticated as justified, had been put at $190m (roughly Shs700bn). But this was scrutinized and rejected by Parliament as unacceptable when the Finance Ministry had tabled a loan request seeking to be authorized by the legislature to be able to borrow and pay off UMEME’s claim.
MPs became suspicious, and led by the Speaker, they disallowed the proposed $190m request and referred the matter to the AG for verification and that’s how Akol undertook a special audit on the UMEME payout. The AG contracted a private firm to look into the claim and their latest report indicates that only $118 (roughly Shs410bn) is due to UMEME and not the $190m which had originally been accepted and agreed upon as due between UMEME and the relevant GoU MDAs. This simply means that through instigating the AG intervention, the Parliament of Uganda has been able to save the Ugandan taxpayer up to roughly Shs290bn.
While receiving the special audit report on Thursday at her Board Room, Speaker Anita Among thanked Akol for taking the assignment seriously and acting on the same urgently. She also commended the electricity sector regulator ERA for the complementary role they played in facilitating and enabling the AG prudently do his work.
The Speaker promised to immediately table the special audit report findings on the floor of Parliament Thursday for subsequent consideration by the people’s representatives. She also implored UEDCL to ensure that Ugandans are served with more reliable and affordable electricity supply than had been the case under UMEME’s period which many critics consider to have been 20 years of nothing but misery, deprivation and exploitation. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
