Published on 07/05/2025
Public Accounts Committee (PAC – Central Government) has directed the Office of the President to provide a detailed breakdown of Ugx. 5 billion spent on the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit.
The directive was issued during a session chaired by Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi, on Wednesday, 7 May 2025, where top officials from the Office of the President, led by Yunus Kakande, the Secretary Office of the President appeared to respond to audit queries on the Ugx. 61.7 billion NAM budget, all of which was reported to have been spent. The summit was hosted in Kampala in January 2024.
Kivumbi pointed out that the Shs5 billion allocated to State House and the Special Forces Command (SFC) was not categorised under classified expenditure and required full accountability.
“This is not classified. So, what was it? Are we paying for SFC? Were they paid allowances,” he remarked.
In his response, Emmanuel Walani, Under Secretary for Finance and Administration in the Office of the President, explained that the funds were used for activities under the accommodation and security subcommittees chaired by State House.
“State House chaired what we call the accommodation subcommittee and also had elements of deployments… including aspects of household feeding and the feeding for the men and women who were deployed during the NAM subcommittee,” Walani said.
When pressed for more clarity, Walani added: “We pay them each Shs11,000 per day. This is part of that budget… and the fuel expenses for the men,” noting that the funds were not classified due to the nature of the expenditure.
Hon. Kivumbi called for a detailed breakdown of the funds demanding to know how they were used.
“Can you tell us, can you give us a detailed schedule, breakdown of the Shs5 billion?” he said.
The officials promised to formally provide the breakdown of how the funds were used.
The committee also raised concerns about Shs3 billion that remained unaccounted for, Shs2.6 billion linked to the Ministry of Works and Transport, and Shs390 million to the Ministry of ICT.
Hajji Kakande, the Permanent Secretary, defended the delay in accountability.
“We passed all the money to different subcommittees in different ministries. The Ministry of Works happened to be one, and the Ministry of ICT. By the time the auditors were carrying out the auditing, they did not bring up their accountability in time,” he said.
Muwanga Kivumbi on his side added that the entities had up to a year to respond to the Auditor General whose reports were out in December 2024, but instead chose to wait up to 2025 to respond to a NAM summit that happened in 2024.
The committee also raised concerns over failure of the Office of the Presidency to title its lands, to which Kakande pledged to complete in two years.
