The Auditor General John Muwanga has made clarifications in respect to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report which indicated that a US$200 million (Approx. UgShs711) loan facility acquired from Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) was misappropriated by officials from the Ministry of Finance.
Early this year PAC reported that the loan did not serve its purpose of among others procuring drugs by the National Drug Authority (NDA), prompting the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga to ask the Auditor General to conduct a special audit on the utilization and performance of the loan.
And in his findings AG Muwanga said the loan, approved by TDB between October 2016 and July 2017, was disbursed and appropriately used as follows: Ministry of Works and Transport (US$.26, 461,016.71 to purchase road construction equipment); the Rural Electrification Agency (US$.2, 889,596.35); National Medical Stores (US$.42, 752,486.69) and US$.127, 896,899.99 to the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA).
The loan, the AG said, was deposited in the Trade Finance Facility Account (TFFA) and subsequently transferred by MOFPED to the Consolidated Fund in Bank of Uganda (BoU).
And, currently, as per the agreement signed at the time of acquiring loan, a total of $155 million has been paid back to TDB, the AG indicated in his audit query report.
