By Isaac senabulya
Parliament
The Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) is to return before COSASE to explain the Audit queries on the unimplemented activities worth 228 billion shillings as raised in the Auditor General’s report for the financial year ending June 30th, 2023.
The officials from UWEC led by the Executive Director –UWEC James Musinguzi had appeared before COSASE on Tuesday this week to explain the same queries but they spent most of the time interfacing with MPs on the committee chaired by Busiro East mp Merdad ssegoona on the success and challenges facing this entity because they had not gone with the written documents explaining the accountability issues as raised in the Auditor General Report.
However, the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2023 was faulted to have not accomplished the planned activities worth billions of shillings.
The Auditor General’s report BEFORE COSASE indicates that he assessed the implementation of thirty-two (32) outputs that had been fully quantified with a total of forty-five (45) activities worth UGX.11.932Bn and noted that thirteen (13) outputs with twenty (20) activities worth UGX.8.497Bn were partially implemented and one (1) output with One (1) activity worth a budget of UGX.228Bn was not implemented at all.
The report noted that out of 114 approved positions, a total of 91 positions were filled leaving a gap of 23 vacant positions including detecting understaffing that led to available small number of employees getting overwhelmed with the workload, leading to stress and poor performance levels hence reduced productivity.
The Auditor General also learned that there was a contract for the Development and Operationalization of the online Booking, ticketing system, and commissioning/installation of the Pedestrian/Car Access control at UWEC was awarded in the financial year 2021-2022 at a contract price of UGX.515Mn for period of six months, but the that the contract period had elapsed but the system had not been commissioned with the software development still incomplete and the civil works were incomplete with the car access not installed at the gate.
The committee also summoned the minister of public service Wilson Muruli Mukasa over his extension of the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) merger with the Uganda World Life Authority(UWA).
This was after one of the committee members Eddie Kwizera sought clarity from UWEC executive director James Musinguzi on how far the center had implemented the rationalization process.
“by this time when you are going to phase out that one, the people supposed to go should have got their packages and they should have left before July, are you telling me now that the minister of public service had amended without informing parliament that you can now stay when they are the one who told us that you should have by the end of July,” said Kwizera.
In response, the Executive Director of UWEC James Musinguzi said that the merger of UWEC with UWA was extended for more than three
