Kampala, Uganda: National Flagship carrier, Uganda Airlines, is yet again facing fresh turbulence after auditors revealed that more than USD 27 million (about Shs 103 billion) in passenger ticket sales cannot be traced in its bank accounts, raising fears of fraud and insider collusion.
According to a Special Audit Report on Revenue Management at Uganda National Airlines Company Limited (UNACL), the missing funds stem from Passenger Name Record (PNR) transactions that were either not linked to deposits or lacked reconciliation.
The PNR system is the backbone of airline ticketing, designed to link every ticket sold to a corresponding bank payment. Yet in thousands of cases, auditors found a total of USD 27,171,362 in ticket sales that appeared in airline booking systems but were nowhere to be found in the airline’s accounts.
Auditors warned that without urgent recovery and reconciliation measures, the state-owned carrier risks losing colossal sums to “fraud, collusion, or outright embezzlement.”
Uganda Airlines management admitted in its response that reconciling PNR data with bank statements has been a persistent “challenge” due to weak IT systems and understaffing. They conceded that manual tracking was error-prone but pledged to “tighten controls” and procure a proper revenue accounting system.
However, critics argue that these loopholes are not just errors but deliberate weaknesses. By failing to implement secure reconciliation frameworks, insiders and unscrupulous agents have allegedly been able to siphon billions without detection.
The audit further flagged the possible complicity of some travel agencies, accused of holding onto customer funds instead of remitting them directly to the airline.
This latest scandal comes on the heels of other high-profile controversies at Uganda Airlines, including the Shs 26 billion MixJet fuel saga and billions lost in bogus refunds for tickets already flown. Collectively, the findings portray an airline bleeding money at nearly every point of its operations.
Public calls are now mounting for criminal investigations to establish whether the missing billions were stolen. For an airline that has repeatedly leaned on taxpayer bailouts, the revelation that Shs 103 billion in ticket sales cannot be traced is a devastating blow to public trust.
This explosive article on audit findings was first reported by The Trumpet.
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