Officials from Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) headed by commissioner general Doris Akol today reappeared in Parliament to face off with the probe team chaired by Bugweri country MP Hon Abdu Katuntu.
Among the top officials from URA included the chairman board of directors Simon Kagugube who told Katuntu that Akol never consulted the board to sanction the imbursement of shs 6b as a reward.
Kagugube maintained his stance that as a board they expected Akol to consult them but only learnt that money was withdrawn from the authority’s accounts last Friday.
“The board didn’t play any role in the payment because the matter was not brought before the board, the board has come to learn on the matter through the media as anyone else,” Kagugube said.
“We were furious and interested and the management did bring a brief of the matter in our regular board meeting.”
However, the URA states that “No expenditure shall be made out of the funds of the Authority, unless that expenditure is part of that expenditure approved by the board under the estimates of the Financial Year in which the expenditure is to be incurred or in the supplementary estimates of that year.”
In her defense however, Mrs Akol attempted without success to convince the Mps that the Presidential Handshake bonuses were not part of URA’s budget, and therefore needn’t be cleared by the board.
The probe committee will tomorrow enter its third day of investigations.