The Committee on National Economy has given agencies under the Ministry of Finance up to Tuesday, 14 March 2023 to present comprehensive reports on the utilisation of loans.
The agencies include Uganda Development Bank (UDB) and Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU).
The committee issued the ultimatum during a meeting with agency officials led by the State Minister for Finance, Hon. Henry Musasizi, on Thursday, 09 March 2023.
MPs raised concern on the inadequate information presented on the performance of loans disbursed.
Denis Ochieng, the Director for Finance and Business Operations at UDB said the Bank received 12 loans from different financial institutions.
“We received a total of US$163.5 million from seven financial institutions. We have been able to disburse 75 per cent funding from the money we have received,” Oceng said.
He added that the bank received two lines of credit from ADB worth US$20 million to support projects in target sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, human capital development, tourism and infrastructure.
Hon. Jonathan Ebwalu (Indep., Soroti West Division) raised a procedural matter noting that some information given by Oceng was not contained in documents availed to the Committee.
“The official from UDB seems to be talking off e cuff. He is talking about 12 loans but in this report he has given us, there is only the one from ADB. There is a problem,” Ebwalu said.
The Committee Chairperson, Hon. John Bosco Ikojo noted that the document availed by UDB to MPs during the meeting was scanty.
“We would suggest that UDB takes some time off to reorganise themselves then appear later,” said Ikojo.
The legislators also raised concern over the discrepancies in figures of a loan disbursed to PSFU by the International Development Association (IDA).
Fredrick Nabimba, an official at Private Sector Foundation Uganda said they received US$22.57 million which was aimed at supporting project delivery of short-term training for workers in the formal and informal sectors.
“The Uganda Skills Development Project (USDP) objective was to enhance the capacity of institutions to deliver high quality, demand driven training programmes in target sectors. The project closed in December 2022,” Kyewalabye said.
MPs however, remained unsatisfied with the figures presented noting that a document from the Ministry of Finance indicated the loan amount committed for the PSFU project as US$25 million.
“This loan closed and we should be comfortable with what is where. You say you used US$22.43 million but we are seeing US$2.57 million that is undisbursed. Where is this money?” asked Hon. Robert Migadde, the Committee Deputy Chairperson.
Juvenal Muhumuza, the Acting Commissioner for Development Assistance at the Ministry of Finance said that the undisbursed amount in question was not given to Uganda.
“The project ended and what is recorded in our books as having been lent to Uganda is US$22.43 million. The balance was not disbursed to the country,” he said.
Muhumuza also attributed the variation in figures to appreciation or depreciation of the dollar to the Special Drawing Rights through which the US$25 million loan was borrowed.
