The Abdu Katuntu led- Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) is today set to once again grill Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General Doris Akol and her top management team over a presidential golden handshake of Shs6 billion.
Ms Akol, who appeared as the first witness before the committee, last week tabled another list that was initiated by the then Attorney General Fredrick Ruhindi but Katuntu’s committee has insisted she presents the real list of the people who shared the money as Parliament carries out wide-ranging formal inquiries into the dubious payments.
Ms Akol who says she is innocent in her first appearance kick-started the demand for the money and later superintended distribution of the Shs6 billion christened the ‘presidential handshake’ will be of particular interest to the inquiries.
Despite putting the blame on Mr Ruhindi, Akol last week failed to account for the beneficiaries she added on, amid criticism from MPs that she “smuggled in her friends”.
Ms Akol faced tough questions in explaining how the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) executive director Jenniffer Musisi was included in the category of core beneficiaries yet she was at URA just at the inception of the case.
The Uganda Vs Tullow Oil case was filed in 2010 and Ms Musisi, who was the URA director of legal services and board affairs, left the tax body in January 2011. The committee will want to know what role she played in a few months she was a URA employee to be entitled to Shs200m as a core beneficiary.
