Last year the finance ministry instituted a series of changes
in its payment systems aimed at plugging the holes that were causing major
leakages of public funds.
Among the changes instituted were the consolidation of
accounts and devolution of the payroll to the districts.
The measures are still being test run and teething problems
are being worked out.
Previously a ministries, government departments and agencies
(MDA) would open numerous accounts for payment to the payroll, suppliers of
goods and services. Because these numerous accounts were difficult to track
they were employed for siphoning money out of the ministry. The ultimate plan
is to have one central account for all government transactions which will make
it easy for the finance ministry monitor transactions in real time. In addition
no expense can now be authorised without a previously approved work planned.
In an extension of this push for more transparency in
government accounts the finance ministry now pays salaries direct to the
accounting officers of districts according to a verified payroll by the Chief
Administrative Officers (CAO) and his respective headmasters for instance. This
way the cut out the public service and education ministries through which
payments would be made, effectively reducing the surface area for theft.
A by-product of these changes is that some civil servants
have gone without salary since the beginning of the year.
Last month Finance ministry permanent secretary and
secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi placed an advert twice in the papers
reminding 37 districts that had not handed in the verified payrolls of their
teaching staff by the 15th and again by the 23rd April.
It’s as if suddenly after all these years the respective accounting officers
don’t know how to draw up a payroll!
The reason is not very hard to fathom. In many cases
officials have padded the payrolls with ghost teachers, to now submit a much
lower payroll numbers would raise eyebrows and even lead to prosecution.
Hence the reluctance in many cases to submit a cleaned up
payroll. Or this maybe an attempt to create pressure on the politicians so they
may direct a reversion to business-as-usual.
In one central Uganda district the payroll has now shrunk
from 2,900 teachers to 900.
A cursory look over the budget performance for the last
three quarters display a dramatic drop in the capacity of government to absorb
the money when it is available. At the same time last year all ministries but
one, had absorbed most of the money released to them, fast forward to today and
these same ministries are struggling to utilise half the money released to them.
If you are wondering how come there is no money floating
around like it used to be, these initiatives maybe at the heart of the matter.
This raises some interesting issues not only about
government operations but on the general economy. It is evident that billions –
no hundreds of billions of shillings have been lost to government finding their
way into the pockets of greedy officials. So failure of government delivery was
not for lack of government funds but because of people working from the
instance to subvert programs by stealing money. But maybe that is putting too
high a premium on their motives, the simple truth seems to be that these people
stole money for their own aggrandisement but not out of any allegiance to a
higher power.
It also explains the real estate boom in Kampala in recent
years. On a wider plane official figures show that the main drivers of growth
have been construction and services.
One can expect that the beneficiaries of this scam are not
going to take this lying down but will fight tooth and nail to maintain the
status quo, we can only hope the finance ministry can stay the course
regardless of the short term pain we are feeling now.
