KAMPALA – MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have raised concerns on the payment of about UGX 5Bn to unverified Cooperative Unions across the country amidst calls to speed up the verification of other Cooperatives across the country.
The call was made during a meeting held between the Committee and officials from the Ministry of Trade who had appeared to answer queries raised in the 2017/2018 Auditor General report.
In the report, the Auditor General noted available field visit reports indicated that revitalization of the Cooperative Societies was hindered by lack of capitalization and access to commodity and agricultural credit and that the Ministry of Trade hasn’t prioritised the Cooperative Unions that were affected by the war yet payments would have helped inject finances into these financial Unions.
Grace Adong, Acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Trade said that a total of 22 cooperative unions are still under verification by the inter-ministerial verification committee and that reports of 7 cooperative unions are ready and working on verifying the remaining 15 cooperative unions is in progress.
Among the verified Cooperative Unions include; Bunyoro Growers Cooperative Union that claimed UGX5.2Bn but verification put claims at UGX4.8Bn, while Masaka Cooperative Union’s claims were UGX 18.9Bn and verified amount is UGX17.7Bn, Teso Cooperative Union claimed UGX37Bn and only UGX16.3Bn was verified, North Bukedi Cooperative Union claimed UGX21.8Bn and the verified figure was UGX 11.4Bn.