Pallisa District Public Accounts Committee is grappling with challenges that have failed the committee to sit for over six months as it was raised by Amolo Charles Omoding the Chairperson Public Accounts Committee Pallisa.
This was raised during a follow-up meeting on Thursday, June 2023 at the Community-Based Services boardroom organized by Action Aid Uganda. This was after realizing that the PAC in Pallisa has not been efficient and effective in areas of corruption.
Amolo Charles Omoding the Chairperson Public Accounts Committee notes that the Committee is poorly funded which he says has affected the performance of the committee “I want to tell you that this committee is most poorly funded because we are not even to call for meetings” Omoding said.
The challenge of PAC not only ends in poor funding but also threats from officials and lack of office space forcing the committee to sit in corridors. “We had an issue with Pallisa SS one time but when we called the officials to appear before us, we were threatened,” Amolo said.
Tabuga Samuel chairperson pubic accounts Committee Kibuku District notes that for PAC to play their roles accordingly theirs is a need to add funding for the.
“Like other districts, we have the problem of funding if there could be some increments on the allowance packages. There many things that we may need like office space as you are much aware know that PAC deals with reports that need to be confidential” Tabuga said.
“For PAC to be effective there should be capacity-building meetings so that they know their roles. So, I pray that for PAC to be effective funding should also be increased because here we get only 9 million for the whole financial year”. Gera Charles PAC member Kibuku said.
“I want to ask the PAC members to know their roles and their rights by reading the tools like the constitution and the local government act. Also, we are calling for the technical staff to give support to this committee because they should not be treated like a threat” Grace Nyaguti the Psychosocial Officer with Action Aid said.
Charles Kateu who represented the Chief Administrative Officer says the delay to fund the PAC to sit is as a result of the delay of the money release noting that PAC members can always sit as they wait for their monies to be released.
Kateu added that the office of the CAO will do a follow-up to find out why the committee still stark without funding. On increasing the allowance, he noted that the allowances of the PAC members should always be done by the council.
Fred Ejautene the Executive Director of CIID Uganda says the Public Accounts Committee plays a very important role and they should not be taken for granted. “I want to appeal to the districts to support these committees because CSOs are not permanent in the nature of operations”
