A Canadian website called canada-tv3.com came out yesterday and announced Ugandan prominent comedian Anne Kansiime and her boyfriend Skylanta dead, alleging that they had both drowned.

canada-tv3.com posted on their website; “Ugandan celebrities, Kansiime Anne and Skylanta have drowned in Canada in what police are calling a “case of misadventure”.

“The accident took place at Lake Ontario, Canadian province of Ontario, according to Police statement.

“The Ugandan Embassy representative reported to family members that Kansiime Anne and her fiance, Skylanta, were fishing on April 28, when Kansiime fell into the water. She was in distress and Skylanta jumped into the water to assist her. According to the Embassy, both were pulled from the water but could not be resuscitated.

“According to reports, the water was a punishing 35 degrees Fahrenheit at the time, only slightly above freezing.

“Family members report no funeral arrangements are set, as officials of Canada and the Uganda Embassy process the accident.”

However, Anne Kansiime has come out and responded to the false rumours in a YouTube video on her channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnmHePQ1C0c&feature=youtu.be) today afternoon saying:

“So today I intentionally beat my face, and Thanked God for this beautiful Face of mine which is definitely alive. So yesterday at around 7pm I think I died, yeah me and my boyfriend Sky drowned in Canada in some people’s heads. I had taken a nap and I woke up to about 156 missed calls of people I have not heard from since the year started.

“You people if you are not going overreact about the good things happening in my life, may you not dramatically mourn me please, because I will come back for you and remind that we were not that close. Banange I’m gona surprise people when I leave this world, be very very careful, don’t even try my death because I will come back for you.

“So if you are no willing to celebrate someone, in the little thing they do, do not dramatically go around mourning them. If you don’t call to check on me and come on burial to mourn me I will definitely come for you. I’m a live, am well, I’m in love and to all the Ninja that follow me you knew where I was” says Anne Kansiime.”

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The High Court in Kampala has suspended an uncivilised staffer for attacking journalists.

Fred Waninda, the acting court registrar in charge of planning, performance and development is accused of assaulting two journalists; Hannington Kisakye attached to Smart 24 television and Erick Yiga of Salt Media Group.

This after the accused was captured on camera while attacking the scribes.

Esta Mbayo, the Chief Registrar of high court Uganda in a letter dated April 25, 2019 ordered Waninda out of office until the investigation is done.

“I have received media reports that the Ag. Registrar, Planning and Development, H/W Fred Waninda, assaulted journalists on the 25th April 2019 at the Commercial Court after appearing before Hon. Justice Jane Elizabeth Alividza,” Mbayo’s letter reads in part.

Mbayo directed further the Inspector of Courts to investigate all the allegations in Wanimba’s conduct and present his findings within seven days for further action.

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The Auditor General John Muwanga has faulted government for paying Shs1.4 billion to 1674 staff that are supposed to have retired. The money was paid as salaries and allowances in the month of June 2018, contrary to the Public Standing Orders.

“I noted that 1674 staff from the June 2018 payroll deemed to have reached the mandatory retirement age were still on the active payroll and were paid a total of Shs.1.4 billion during the month of June alone in form of salaries and allowances contrary to Public Standing Orders,” Muwanga said in his report to parliament for the financial year ended June 30, 2018.

No special skills for contract employees

He says the payroll of June 2018 revealed that pensioners in various ministries, departments and agencies were employed on contract terms but there was no evidence indicating that their job positions required special skills. Some of the positions in question include; drivers, plant operators, accountants, administrative assistants, askaris and special constables which positions can easily be filled from the existing job market.

Delays in solving queried files

“There were delays in solving queried files as 931 files were queried and stored at the Ministry of Public Service (MOPS) awaiting collection by the respective vote human resource officers for further action. “I noted that it takes on average between 6 to 12 months for vote Human Resource Officers to pick up the queried files for correction,” he says.

Double pay to pensioners possible

He says some pensioners were assigned multiple gratuity payments both on the payrolls and interface files. In the event that votes do not carry out a review to ascertain the accuracy of the interface files uploaded on the integrated financial management system (IFMS), the possibility of double payments cannot be ruled out.

Excess government expenditure

The official in his report says irregular employment of pensioners results into excess expenditure by government and denies the unemployed access to government jobs. “The system being used to manage the pension was unable to generate automatic notifications of the retirement due dates,” he says.

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The Auditor General John Muwanga in his latest report to parliament, says youth groups benefiting from the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) failed to comply with the repayment schedule, failing to pay back Shs1.3 billion out of the 1.6 billion disbursed to them through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

“It was observed that whereas the groups funded in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 were expected to have repaid a total amount of Shs1.8 billion (Interest inclusive) by close of the financial year 2017/2018, only Shs0.44 billion (24.9 per cent) was collected leaving a balance of Shs.1.3 billion (75.1 percent),” Mr. Muwanga says in his report.

The findings above were established as Muwanga did an audit on Shs1.6bn disbursed to youth groups in 17 Municipal Councils in the Financial Years; 2013/2014 and 2014/2015, whose recovery period of three years had expired by June 30, 2018.

Mr. Muwanga’s audit included ascertaining the following; whether all funds budgeted for YLP during the period under review were actually released and used only for the program.

Whether all funds advanced to the youth groups were repaid in accordance with the agreed repayment schedule and to establish reasons for failure or delays to repay the funds.

Also audited was whether all funds recovered during the period under review were transferred to the revolving fund account in Bank of Uganda and whether on a sample basis the funded projects exist and are operating.

He says in a report that a physical inspection on two selected projects per Municipal Council to ascertain whether youth groups benefiting from YLP were in existence and executed in accordance with the operational guidelines, established that out of the 26 inspected projects, only 6 projects were in existence while 20 projects were non-existent.

He however, says that failure to repay in a timely manner implies that other eligible groups were unable to access the funds since this is a revolving fund.

According to the Accounting Officers, delayed repayment was mainly attributed to disintegration of groups and sharing of funds by members (45 per cent), embezzlement of funds by group members (23 per cent), failure of some projects especially agriculture projects due to bad weather patterns (10 per cent) and other reasons including lack of skills, Sensitization and insecurity (22 per cent).

Failure to transfer recovered funds to the recovery account in BoU.

According to the report, a review of the bank statements of YLP collection accounts revealed that out of the collected amount of Shs0.44 billion only Shs0.4 billion was transferred to the National Revolving Fund Collection Account by the end of the financial year 2017/18 leaving a balance of Shs0.079 billion. he says this undermines the effective implementation of the program.

The accounting officers attributed this to the slow recovery rates and failure to allocate some recoveries to individual groups. I advised the Accounting Officers to follow the programme guidelines in order to achieve the project objectives.

Underfunding of the Programme.

A review of the approved budget for the YLP program revealed that whereas the 17 Municipal Councils had budgeted for a total amount of Shs1.7 billion for the financial years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 , only Shs1.6 billion was released resulting in a shortfall of Shs17,971,000, which he says undermined the intended objective of responding to the challenge of unemployment amongst the Youths.

He says in his report that accounting officers mainly attributed this to budget cuts by the Ministry of Gender which has the final say in this programme.

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