LC5 boss & CAO clash: All district accounts closed
By Julius Odeke
8th Aug 2011: BUDAKA – Budaka LC5 Chairman, Arthur Wakko Mboizi, has instructed all banks where all the eight district accounts are held not to honour any financial transaction with the current Chief Administrative Officer [CAO] Elias Byamungu, accusing him of misappropriating district funds to a tune of 75million Shillings.
“…We have instructed all banks not honour any financial obligations with the current CAO. He should instead be transferred to another district after causing financial loss to the district. We shall not sit and watch as district funds are grossly mismanaged. This is
totally unacceptable”, Mboizi said.
The closure of the eight bank accounts comes at a time when the district executive and the CAO are at logger-heads. The district executive resolved in its June 10th Council meeting that Byamungu, the district’s accounting officer, be transferred to another station on the same allegations. Byamungu however maintains that his colleagues are framing him just to harm his integrity.
The financial wrangles among the district’s top leadership has therefore meant that implementation of the government’s key activities at district level like the Naads programme have been severely affected for the past month. Other than that, the wrangles have also created palpable tension at the district and given some civil servants the perfect excuse to shun their jobs, leaving many offices empty.
The district executive has now petitioned the Permanent Secretary, in the Ministry of Local Government Mr John Kashaka Muhanguzi to urgently intervene and save the district from sinking further over what they described as “…gross misappropriation of district funds by the accounting officer”.
Byamungu is also accused of giving himself a 24million Shilling salary advance. The district executive said such an advance contravened the standing guidelines and added that it would be impossible to recover such a big amount of money in a short time in the event that Byamungu died or is transferred.
The CAO Byamungu however tried to dispel such fears, arguing that the money can be recovered quickly and that the Councillors have no reason to worry over the matter. Byamungu also faces further accusations of using Budaka district funds to travel to Bundibugyo and Kibale to answer his personal audit queries and yet it should have been Bundibugyo and Kibale districts to fund his travel and other related expenses. Francis Mughono, one of the district Councillors, explained this alleged irregularity using an expenditure sheet that he had.
Uganda Correspondent has learnt that the Ministry of Local Government has now directed Budaka CAO Byamungu to refund the Shs3.2m that he allegedly used to travel to Bundibugyo and Kibale to answer queries raised by the IGG. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
