Musasizi urges local government auditors to tighten public spending oversight

In Summary: The Minister highlighted risks including ghost learners, payroll fraud, inflated contracts and missing public assets, while calling for citizen complaints raised during accountability Barazas to inform audit plans and investigations.

Kabale, Uganda — Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has challenged local government internal auditors to strengthen accountability and value-for-money oversight, warning that fraud, waste and poorly implemented projects undermine service delivery and Uganda’s development ambitions.

Musasizi made the call while addressing the Annual General Meeting of the Local Government Internal Auditors Association (LoGIIA) at White Horse Inn in Kabale on Friday, November 13, where he emphasised the auditors’ responsibility to safeguard public resources and ensure government investments achieve their intended outcomes.

The meeting was held under the theme, “Strengthening Local Government Internal Audit for Accountability, Value for Money and Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.”

The minister said local governments are critical to translating national development plans into services and opportunities for citizens, making effective internal audit systems essential to the country’s development efforts.

“Every shilling lost through fraud, waste, inefficiency or poor controls slows our progress towards prosperity. Every project that is poorly implemented delays transformation. Every weakness that goes unchecked undermines public trust,” he said.

He urged auditors to move beyond routine compliance checks and establish whether public expenditure is achieving its intended results, particularly in programmes such as the Parish Development Model (PDM), public procurement and other service delivery interventions.

Musasizi also challenged auditors to incorporate concerns raised by citizens during ongoing anti-corruption and accountability Barazas into their risk assessments and audit plans.

He cited ghost learners, payroll fraud, inflated contracts and missing public assets among the irregularities that effective, risk-based internal audits should detect.

He further emphasised that complaints raised by citizens should be followed up with credible audit evidence to support corrective action, sanctions and recovery of public funds where necessary.

“A classroom built to standard, a health centre without illegal charges, a PDM fund that reaches the right household,” Musasizi said, highlighting the practical outcomes that effective accountability systems should protect.

Acting Internal Auditor General Hussein Isingoma reinforced the need for auditors to physically verify government investments rather than relying solely on financial records and project documentation.

“To enhance the value for money assurance, our auditors must go to the site. Not only to the files, from files to the sites,” he said.

LoGIIA Chairperson CPA Justus Musimenta called for stronger audit structures and adequate staffing to enable internal auditors to effectively monitor government programmes at the local government level.

He noted that some districts have only one or two internal auditors despite the wide range of government activities and projects they are expected to oversee.