President Museveni has defended his decision to create units under State House to oversee operations of government bodies.
The President defended his decision while speaking to cabinet ministers and Permanent Secretaries on Monday. This was during the start of a one-week Introspection Retreat at the National Leadership Institute, Kyankwanzi.
The President was particularly responding to concerns following his creation of a unit to oversee the operations of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) last week. The State House Revenue Intelligence and Strategic Operations Unit has a mission to fight corruption within the URA.
Last week, David Kalemera was appointed as a Senior Presidential Advisor and head of the unit. The government hopes to close revenue leakages and boost tax collections with this new unit. However, the President received backlash for this move. Some of the criticism was due to his appointment of Kalemera, who was convicted of tax fraud and conspiracy to commit a felony in April 2022.
However, most of the criticism was towards the duplication of government offices. Critics expressed concern about such task forces rendering existing agencies redundant. The President has a number of monitoring units within the precincts of State House. These have all been widely criticized for overlapping functions of existing agencies such as the Inspectorate of Government.
However, the President was confident about his decision, defending it. He cited the challenge URA faces in collecting taxes, which leads to under-collection. Additionally, he decried the massive stealing of the little that is collected.He said such units that are directly supervised by him are necessary to safeguard public funds.
President Museveni to Open New Unit
The President also announced that the Accountancy and Audit Unit is in the offing. This is meant to ensure transparent accounting practices across government departments. According to Museveni, it will prevent the theft of public funds.
What is a President Museveni address recently without criticism of Parliament? The President found time to attack MPs for selfishness. This, he said, pushed them to divert money meant for critical national developments to small projects like feeder roads in order to score political points.
The President cited an incident involving the Ministry of Energy, where the budget was allegedly cut due to corruption but went unreported. The tough-speaking Museveni called upon judges not to give bail to suspects charged with corruption.
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