On Tuesday, the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga directed the Auditor General to conduct a special audit to ascertain the use of a 200 million dollar loan acquired from PTA Bank by Finance Ministry.
Kadaga ordered the audit as a response to a report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that called for the sacking of the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija and the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Keith Muhakanizi, over the misappropriation of the money in question.
On Friday, the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Angelina Ossege has reiterated that although the committee welcomes the special audit and they would be eagerly awaiting the Auditor General’s findings, the minister and the permanent secretary still have a case to answer
Osege stressed that though investigations are centered around irregularities in procuring the loan, if the findings show that that money was spent but allocated to something it was not originally meant for, this would still be a violation of proper procedure for which those responsible should be punished.
Gerald Karuhanga the deputy chairperson of the committee also noted that the interest on the loan was a lot and was bound to cost the taxpayer about 81 billion shillings.
In an interview with NTV, Keith Muhakanizi, the Permanent Secretary said he welcomed the special audit and argued that they did not do any wrong.
The money was meant to finance a shortfall in domestic revenue that was projected at 288 billion shillings for the financial year 2015/2016 and substitute domestic borrowing to the tune of UGX. 280 billion.