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The report said; “The Committee recommends that the Inspector General of Government (lGG) conducts an in-depth investigation of allegations of corruption made against the Accounting Officer of the NCS.”
A seven-member committee which has spent the last five months investigating the operations of the National Council of Sports, has recommended further criminal investigations against the body’s General Secretary Dr Bernard Patrick Ogwel.
An investigation by the Parliament of Uganda into NCS – the body mandated to oversee sports activities on behalf of the Government, has raised evidence of gross mismanagement of public funds, and corruption allegations.
The report said; “The Committee recommends that the Inspector General of Government (lGG) conducts an in-depth investigation of allegations of corruption made against the Accounting Officer of the NCS.”
During their testimonies, UBF President Moses Muhangi and UNF president Sarah Babirye Kityo informed the committee that Ogwel had on several instances requested them to give him a "kick back" on the monies disbursed to their respective federations.
The committee also heard several accounts from federation presidents who were ordered to account for funds that were not released for operation, which pointed to corruption.
The committee was able to establish that some federations received less money than what had been approved and others did not receive any funding from NCS, which has in tum affected the implementation of their planned outputs.
Ogwel, acting as the Accounting Officer for NCS, was found to be liable for contravening Section 45(1) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) for releasing funds to federations that do not meet the minimum requirements.
It was found that NCS released up to UGX 3.5 billion as a lumpsum to 40 federations, to which NCS failed to provide breakdown of specifically how much was received by each federation.
“The continued disbursement of funds to federations that did not account for funds previously given, contravenes Section 45(1) (a) of the PFMA which mandates accounting officers to control the regularity and proper use of money appropriated,” the report further stated.
“Additionally, the Council should halt the disbursement funds to any federations that fall short of the requirement under the law.”
As per the report read before Parliament on Wednesday, NCS was found to have failed to account for up to UGX 3.9 billion of the total UGX 19.2 billion released for the first six months of the 2022/23 Financial Year (FY).
For example, NCS revealed that they had spent UGX 4.865 billion on the 2022 Commonwealth games, however, reports revealed that only UGX 4.833 billion was spent, with up to UGX 31.9 million not accounted for.
Furthermore, NCS failed to provide proper accountability for participation in the Islamic games, in Konya, Turkey. The Committee was presented with three different figures for the same games.
One figure indicated that UGX 1.177 billion was spent while the other indicated that a total of UGX 1.231 billion was the expenditure for the games, revealing a difference of UGX 70.9 million.
Meanwhile, while appearing before the committee, Ogwel had told the committee that UGX 1.160 billion had been spent on the games.
There were also discrepancies in accounting for funds released to the Uganda Rugby Union (URU) for the 2022 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
NCS reported differing sums regarding its disbursements to URU which were found to be almost half of the sums they had initially reported.
During Q1 of the FY 2022/23, NCS reported to have disbursed UGX 458 million to URU, but the committee said they found out that actually only UGX 224 million was released.
In its report, the committee found that NCS on several occasions failed to provide relevant documentation for its expenditure, while it also found inconsistencies in the reports presented and the actual expenditure.
When contacted by this writer, Ogwel categorically stated that NCS would answer to the findings laid in the report through a press briefing, and offered to extend an invitation to this writer.
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