Accountability: Muhakanizi vows to take action against NMS

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Secretary to Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi has vowed to take stern action against National Medical Stores-NMS for failure to account for Shillings 3.59 billion.

This stems from the Auditor General’s report for the year ending 2017, which shows that items worth Shillings 3.59 billion remained  undistributed  to  649 health  facilities at the end of the year.

On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee chaired by the Budadiri West Member of Parliament, Nathan Nandala Mafabi accused Muhakanizi of failing to perform his role of enforcing accountability reports from Ministries, Departments and Agencies especially NMS.

He was particularly concerned about funds that were released to NMS for the purchase of drugs but have never been accounted for even as drug stock outs persist in health facilities. Nandala noted that his committee had even received a petition concerning the lack of accountability for funds.

The Accountant General, Lawrence Semakula argued that the accountability of the funds must be explained by the Health Ministry, Permanent Secretary who released the money to NMS.

However, Nandala couldn’t have any of this. He pointed to the Public Finance Management Act, which empowers the Secretary to the Treasury to enforce compliance to accounting guidelines.

Muhakanizi revealed that he had attempted to conduct a forensic audit of NMS’ accounts but was dragged to court by the entity, which argued that the Ministry had no mandate to audit its finances.

He also stated that NMS had refused to enroll on the Integrated Financial Management system (IFMS) that helps the Finance Ministry track funds.

Muhakanizi says the judge ruled against NMS and promised to fix the past weaknesses to ensure NMS complies with the required financial guidelines.

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