MPs have halted the disposal of vehicles and motorcycles belonging to Wakiso district pending an on-site inspection to establish whether the assets have been properly valued.
The decision was taken by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Local Government, chaired by Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze, after the committee questioned Wakiso’s technical leadership over the planned disposal.
The committee was examining the district’s management of public resources following findings contained in a report by the Auditor General.
During the meeting, the committee learnt that Wakiso had started the process of disposing of several vehicles and motorcycles that had been identified for sale.
MPs, however, raised concern over what they described as unusually low valuations attached to some of the assets.
The committee was told that one motorcycle had been assigned a disposal value of Shs20,000, while one vehicle was valued at Shs50,000.
The figures prompted MPs to question whether the assets had been properly assessed before being listed for disposal.
Nambooze said the committee was concerned that the low valuations could create room for public assets to be sold at prices that do not reflect their actual value.
“We sense connivance here so that at the end of the day they sell to each other,” Nambooze said.
Pallisa County MP Constantine Okwi described the valuations as a possible manipulation of the disposal process that could result in a financial loss to the district.
“It is very true that these values are manipulated,” Okwi said.
The MPs said they needed to establish the physical condition and actual market value of the vehicles and motorcycles before allowing the disposal process to continue.
The committee also discovered that some of the vehicles listed for disposal were not registered in the name of Wakiso district.
William Mayanja, the district’s head of procurement, told the committee that some of the vehicles had been donated to the district but were being used as part of its fleet.
“Hon. chair, some of these vehicles were donations to Wakiso district and they form part of the fleet and therefore belong to the district,” Mayanja said.
MPs questioned why the district had not completed the transfer of ownership of the donated vehicles if they were considered district assets.
The officials were unable to provide the committee with a satisfactory explanation for the delays in transferring the vehicles into the district’s name.
The committee said ownership records were important because the district must be able to demonstrate that it has the legal authority to dispose of any public asset.
Following the concerns raised during the meeting, Nambooze directed that the disposal process be stopped until the committee had inspected the assets.
“We shall first visit and see the status of these items before we clear the sell-off. For now, the process is halted. I cannot see an asset being sold off at Shs20,000, no, not now,” Nambooze said.
She warned that district officials could be required to account for any undervaluation established during the inspection.
“If we visit and see that they were undervalued, you, the CAO and others will be held accountable,” Nambooze said.
The committee is expected to visit Wakiso district to inspect the vehicles and motorcycles, assess their condition and establish whether the disposal values were based on proper assessments.
The committee’s action does not amount to a finding that officials manipulated the valuations. The allegations and concerns raised during the proceedings will be subject to further examination by Parliament.
The district’s Chief Administrative Officer, Jude Bukenya, led the technical team that appeared before the committee.
