Parliament Grills NITA-U Officials Over Shs 94M Mischarge

Officials from the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) have been grilled over a sum of Shs 94 million which was a mischarge during the financial year 2013/2014.

The officials led by the NITA-U Board Chairman, James Kabajjo and the Executive Director, James Saaka

had appeared before the Parliament Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on Tuesday to respond to a number of audit queries raised in the Auditor General’s report.

A review of NITA-U’s treasury single account cashbook revealed that the entity charged wrong expenditure codes to a tune of Shs 94 million.

During Tuesday’s interface, the legislators noted that Parliament appropriated funds in accordance with the needs of the country and this appropriation is implemented through the budget in which funds are tagged to particular activities and outputs using account codes.

Kasilo County MP, Elijah Okupa noted that this practice undermines the importance of the budgeting process as well as the intentions of the appropriating authority and results into misleading reporting.

Bukedea Woman MP, Anita Among who was chairing the committee meeting asked the officials to avail to the committee a list of accounts that suffered the mischarge as well those that benefited but they were not readily available.

Among demanded from the officials on whether the mischarge was approved the board of directors as well as the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to Treasury (PSST) as provided for in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

In response, the NITA-U ED Saaka took sole responsibility for the mischarge after he admitted to not getting permission from the Board. He said that at the time, the PFMA was not yet in force.

Saaka told the committee that the decision was due to the fact that come account codes were not allocated sufficient funds during budgeting process and non-utilization of non-tax revenue.

The legislators demanded to know whether any disciplinary action was taken by the board against Mr. Saaka since he acted without their approval.

The Board Chairman, Kabajjo noted that he was not in office during the period under audit, however, Saaka who was a member of the board then said that he was cautioned by the board and since then, no mischarge has ever been carried.

The Committee Vice Chairperson, Among ruled ordering the officials to avail all the documents of the accounts that suffered the mischarge as well as the caution letter as prove that action was taken against Saaka.