Finance minister Matia Kasaija has expressed disappointment for not sharing on the Shs6billion presidential handshake.
Mr Kasaija who appeared before the Parliamentary committee that is investigating the disputed payment and he revealed that the despite writing the letter requesting for Shs6b in supplementary budget, the minister never benefited a single shilling.
“Categorically, I was not a beneficiary. I only authorized the money but did not benefit even a single cent,” said Mr Kasaija in a deep voice depicting betrayal.
This was after the committee chairman, Abdu Katuntu tasked him to explain how much he had taken and what role he had played in the entire process.
Mr Kasaija who arrived late for the interrogation first apologised, stating that his docket is a very busy one.
“The current portfolio I hold is an extremely heavy one. I have just been dealing with emergencies for this country including Uganda Telecom. My full apologies,” said Mr Kasaija.
Mr Kasaija who was clearly disappointed with the URA team that determined the beneficiaries of the oil cash bonus thanked the committee for investigating them.
“I want to thank this Committee for coming up very strongly about this issue. This is what we call accountability to the country. We are really very appreciative of what we are doing. If there are any mistakes we have made as a Ministry, we will be very glad to admit them.”
Kasaija added, “We are here to give all the information and explanations you need without any reservations.”
Meanwhile the secretary to the treasury who was appearing before the same committee alongside the minister apologized for irregularly presenting a supplementary budget that was prompted by the Shs6billion cash payout.
“First of all, I want to apologize. There are areas which I want to start with. I want to apologize for the technical mistake we made when we were presenting a supplement to Parliament. We presented that supplementary wrongly and I want to take ownership as the leader of the technical team. I sincerely apologise for that technical mistake,” Mr Muhakanizi noted.
Mr Katuntu then asked Muhakanizi to clarify in the mistake he was talking about.
“For purposes of the record, we would like to know the mistake you are talking about?” asked Mr Katuntu.
Mr Muhakanizi directed the director of budget in the finance ministry Mr Kenneth Mugambe to talk about the mistake who shocked the committee by revealing that the Shs6billion was requested as money for universities.
“The mistake is an error which appeared on the Supplementary Schedule that was submitted to Parliament in terms of the description for the need for resources that were provided to URA. In that Schedule 1 of FY 2015, 16, there was a description of non-teaching staff of universities.
“There was a figure of Shs6billion against URA. The description stated as the funding being for non-teaching staff of public universities which actually was not the case,” said Mr Mugambe.
