Opposition Members of Parliament have today July 27, 2016, proposed an amendment in the tenure period of accountability committees from the current two and half years to five years to enable a smooth operation of their work.
Speaking to Journalists at Parliament during the handover ceremony for the parliamentary committee on local government accounts, the Opposition’s Chief whip Winfred Kiiza, said that they had observed that change of leadership of this committee every after two years affects the tracking of accountabilities.
Kiiza handed over the office to the new bearer Reagan Okumu.
She said this in particular happens in government ministries where officials are often transferred and this makes it troublesome tracking them if the accounts committee leaves office within a short time.
She also said that redeployment of accounting officers like Chief Finance Officers (CFOS) and Chief Administrative Officers to other district before accounting for expenditure of the period of their operation is wrong because it is not easy to trace these officials to account for the funds for the previous districts.
Okumu, while receiving the new office said that his committee will stick to the Auditor General (AG) reports over the accountability of the district funds as a way of disposing off of the many pending reports to reduce the current backlog caused because of the many administrative units like districts, municipalities,sub counties and municipal councils.
He urged the whistle blowers to utilize the local government accounts committee to report contracts and donor funds what is perceived not accounted for.