Parliament orders for special audit of Namboole

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has directed the office of the Auditor General to immediately carry out a forensic audit into the operations of the Namboole National stadium.

According to the chairperson of the Committee Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the auditor General should establish the truth that government intends to sell Mandela National Stadium to a private developer because it has failed to run it profitably.

This is what the MPs told officials from the ministry of Finance led by their Accounting Officer Betty Kasimbazi who had appeared to answer queries in the Auditor general’s report for the financial year 2017/18.

The committee started by tasking the officials to explain why they have failed to start the construction of the ministry of Finance headquarters in spite of receiving funds from government to implement the project.

They had no convincing answer.

The next query was when the officials disclosed to the committee that the Ministry is stuck with the burden of clearing outstanding domestic arrears of Shs 200 billion.

To the ministry, majority of the arrears are as a result of the accumulation of subscription to international organisations and tax exemptions something that generated a serious debate in the committee.

Then came the issue of Namboole National stadium where legislators found out that there is a lot of mismanagement of this government facility.

They thus directed the Auditor General to immediately carry a forensic audit into the operations of the stadium.