Parliament has approved the appointment of an auditor to audit the accounts of the Office of the Auditor General for financial years 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.
The Deputy Speaker, Anita Among, had tasked the Parliamentary Commission to ensure that the right and due processes are followed to procure the best audit company for the job.
While moving the motion for the appointment of an auditor to study the Auditor General’s books, Finance Committee Chairperson Hon Keefa Kiwanuka told the House that M/S Kisaka and Company Certified Accountants emerged as the best evaluated bidder to provide the services.
MPs, during the sitting held on Thursday, 27 January 2022, expressed reservations over the appointment of M/S Kisaka and Company, to execute the task.
Kiwanuka made assurances to MPs that the process to choose the company, which commenced in April 2021, underwent procurement processes as per the PPDA Act where bids were displayed for companies to apply.
“It has been approved by the Solicitor General so we are now in the final process where we need Parliamentary approval, to issue the contract to M/S Kisaka and Company Certified Accountants,” Kiwanuka said.
Hon. Tony Ayoo (NRM, Kwania County) reiterated the need to appoint the auditing company through all the due processes, so as to improve the work of the Auditor General and ensure that Government is performing well.
“The audit on the Auditor General’s office will improve their work and bring in new innovations so that whenever they do auditing, we are sure of the work they do. This results from conflicts between the Auditor General’s office and the entities they audit,” said Ayoo.
Hon. Enos Asiimwe told the House that a sitting of the Finance Committee had observed that there is pressure to have an audit of the accounts of the Auditor General before March 2022, yet the process has taken so long.
“But in one of the meetings, we agreed that as much as we are late for the audit…we agreed that we should not approve Kisaka for another three years unless we have a new process,” said Asiimwe.
State Minister for Finance, Hon Henry Musasizi, told the House that the first audits made of the Auditor General’s office, were for financial years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021; which were carried out by M/S Kisaka and Company Certified Accountants.
“I propose to the House that we adopt the principle of auditing the accounts of the Auditor General’s office. We can then allow the Parliamentary Commission to go back and advertise so that they get an appropriate auditor to do the job,” Musasizi said.
The Deputy Speaker advised that in the circumstances, other companies should then be given a chance.
Kiwanuka objected to setting up a new process to establish an auditing firm for the Auditor General’s office, saying the current process had already taken a long time.
“To get to this process has taken close to a year. This process started way back in April. It is a very lengthy process,” he said.
