By Frank Kamuntu
Auditor General, John Muwanga will smile to the bank with a UGX 500 million cheque as a personal to holder Service Award for the nearly two decades he has served the country.
The Service Award was determined by Parliament on Tuesday after Budadiri West MP; Nathan Nandala Mafabi proposed that the country appreciates the tremendous work Muwanga has done for the country. He had proposed a one-off payment of UGX 1 billion but it was rejected by the majority of the House until a compromise was reached on UGX 500 million following a formula presented by Erute South MP, Jonathan Odur.
Lawmakers voted in favour of Muwanga’s Service Award based on the proposed formula of taking 2.6 percent of the annual salary of the retiring Auditor General, multiplied by five and the years of service.
This followed a motion moved by Henry Musasizi, State Minister of Finance (General Duties) for the House to determine the retired benefits for the Auditors General in fulfillment of the provisions of the National Audit Act, 2008. He said that Section 5 (2) of the Act gives Parliament power to determine the post-retirement benefits of the Auditor General but this had never been formalised because the only Auditor General since the enactment of the law had not yet retired.
”It is no secret that by the time of enactment of the National Audit Act, this country had lost a good professional in the person of the current Auditor General who had left in 2005 for the United States because he did not agree with the terms of service of the office. After failing to get a replacement, he was convinced to return to the office after enactment of the National Audit Act and restructuring of the office. However, in so doing it reserved the right and authority, in section 5 (2), to determine the remuneration and other conditions of service of the Auditor General, including post-retirement benefits. Fourteen years down the road, Parliament has not yet executed this statutory mandate,” explained Musasizi while presenting the motion.
The Minister who moved the motion on behalf of Parliament and was seconded by Amos Kankunda, Chairperson Committee on Finance, said that putting in place a retirement package for the Auditor General will help the country to; attract and retain talent; ensure motivation and job satisfaction; reduce labour turnover; and, ensuring public confidence among others.
Lawmakers after debating the Service Award specifically for Muwanga, went ahead to approve the retirement benefits for any Auditor General irrespective of the period he or she shall have spent in office.
A retiring Auditor General shall continue to earn until death a monthly retirement benefit equivalent to the salary payable to sitting Auditor General; get a furnished house or a one-off payment of UGX 400 million; an annual medical allowance equivalent to the package payable to a sitting Auditor General; a Chauffeur driven car or a one-off payment of UGX 400 million; security provided by the State; fuel and vehicle repairs allowance of UGX 2 million per month; and official burial by the State upon death.
Mandate
Section 4 (1) of the National Audit Act, 2008 provides for the appointment of the Auditor General by the President with the approval of Parliament in accordance with Article 163 (1) of the Constitution. An independent officer of Parliament, the Auditor General’s functions include; auditing and reporting on the public accounts of Uganda and all public offices; conducting financial, value-for-money audits and other audits; auditing classified expenditures; auditing all Government investments; carrying out procurement audits; and, audit treasury memoranda.
About Muwanga
According to an official profile provided by the Office of the Auditor General, the retiring John Muwanga holds a Master of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Glamorgan (Wales, UK) and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and an active member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda.
Muwanga was first appointed Auditor General in 2001 and served until 2005 before returning in 2007 in an office he has held to date. He also served for 11 years in the private sector including six years as a Partner with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Zambia and Malawi.
In Uganda, he worked as a Consultant (Internal Audit Advisor attached to the Treasury) and also held line positions within the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development as Director Accounts.
After leaving the Auditor General’s office in 2005, he briefly served on a multi-donor program as the Deputy Head at the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Secretariat based in Washington D.C at the World Bank. Between 2003 to 2006, he served on the Budget and Finance Committee of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. From 2008 to 2014, he served as a member of the United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee, which is a panel of experts who provide advisory services to the General Assembly and he also served as the Vice Chair and then Chair in the latter years of the Committee. Muwanga also served as a member of the World Bank Multilateral Audit Advisory Group and the ACCA (UK) Public Sector Committee.
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