The parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises has directed the Auditor General to scrutinize all supplementary budgets the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs sought in connection with the oil tax case.
The directive was given after the Solicitor General failed to provide the documents the committee had directed him to produce in connection with the supplementary budget.
In the 2010/2011 financial year, Parliament approved a supplementary budget of Shs11.9 billion shillings for the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The money was to facilitate the ministry handle the arbitration in London, UK where Heritage Oil Company had challenged a decision by Uganda to slap on the firm a capital gains tax bill.
In an earlier meeting with the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises, ministry officials failed to submit documents explaining how the supplementary budget was used.
The officials led by the Solicitor General Francis Atoke returned to the committee on the same matter. The committee is investigating the Shs6 billion payout to 42 government officials as a reward for their role in the successful litigation of the oil tax case in favour of Uganda.
Another issue of contention was the per-diem or allowances given to some of the officials from the Atorney General's Chambers who were involved in the case.
The committee has now directed the Auditor General to scrutinize all supplementary budgets in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in regard to the oil case. This, after the Solicitor General failed to provide the documents the committee had sought in connection with the supplementary budget
The committee also tasked Solicitor General Francis Atoke to explain how Uganda lost $157 million (approximately 570 billion shillings) to oil firms after officials instead of claiming $407 million of the money awarded Uganda settled for $250 million.
The committee will interact with more witnesses in the remaining few weeks as the one month extension granted by the Speaker expires.