The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the Office of the President to provide a detailed breakdown of Shs5 billion spent on the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit that was held in January 2024.
The directive was issued during a session chaired by Muwanga Kivumbi, on Wednesday, 7 May 2025, where top officials from the Office of the President, led by Yunus Kakande, the Secretary Office of the President appeared to respond to audit queries on the Shs 61.7 billion NAM budget, all of which was reported to have been spent.
Kivumbi pointed out that the Shs5 billion allocated to State House and the Special Forces Command (SFC) was not categorised under classified expenditure and required full accountability.
“This is not classified. So, what was it? Are we paying for SFC? Were they paid allowances,” he remarked.
In his response, Emmanuel Walani, Under Secretary for Finance and Administration in the Office of the President, explained that the funds were used for activities under the accommodation and security subcommittees chaired by State House.
“State House chaired what we call the accommodation subcommittee and also had elements of deployments including aspects of household feeding and the feeding for the men and women who were deployed during the NAM subcommittee,” Walani said.
When pressed for more clarity, Walani added: “We pay them each Shs11,000 per day. This is part of that budget and the fuel expenses for the men,” noting that the funds were not classified due to the nature of the expenditure.
Kivumbi called for a detailed breakdown of the funds demanding to know how they were used.
The officials promised to formally provide the breakdown of how the funds were used.
The committee also raised concerns about Shs3 billion that remained unaccounted for, Shs2.6 billion linked to the Ministry of Works and Transport, and Shs390 million to the Ministry of ICT.
Kakande defended the delay in accountability.
“We passed all the money to different subcommittees in different ministries. The Ministry of Works happened to be one, and the Ministry of ICT. By the time the auditors were carrying out the auditing, they did not bring up their accountability in time,” he said.
