The Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has ordered for a forensic audit into the Shs500 million gorilla permit fraud that occurred at Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) after the Auditor General reported that he was denied access to the chimpanzee and gorilla booking data during the audit process.
The Auditor General, John Muwanga noted that although UWA reported to have collected Shs22.461 billion as revenue from Gorilla and Chimpanzee tracking in 2022/23, but his request for data regarding financial transactions such as records of invoices, payment and reconciliation to the system was denied, a decision he said limits his audit work into verifying the correctness of the said earned revenue.
The directive was issued by Medard Lubega, Chairperson COSASE, during the meeting held between the Committee and officials of UWA who had appeared to respond to a number of audit queries raised in the December 2023 Auditor General’s report.
“You know that is an audit ordered by the Minister and by standards when the Minister orders for an audit, that one goes to him. Now, we are also ordering for a forensic audit. We are also ordering a forensic investigation into the same affairs,” said Lubega.
In October, 2023, the Auditor General picked interest in the ongoing saga in which the government lost huge sums of money after Uganda Wildlife Authority officials printed gorilla permits whose funds were diverted from the authority’s bank accounts.
The tourism ministry requested the Office of the Auditor General (AG) to undertake a comprehensive forensic audit covering the period between July 2020 and September 2023. The audit was meant to cover gorilla and chimpanzee bookings at Bwindi, Mgahinga and Kibale National Parks as well as Kyambura Gorge (Queen Elizabeth National Park) and findings be submitted to the ministry within one month, however the Auditor General reported that he was denied access to the chimpanzee and gorilla booking data
The fraud was detected internally by UWA, promoting the Executive Director to commission an internal that covered between June and August 2023 and “generated important insights” and preliminary findings pointing to possible fraud orchestrated by some staff from departments of reservations, finance and information technology at head office, with possible connivance of some field staff.
