Officials from the National Council of Sports led by Board Chairperson Ambrose Tashyobya and General Secretary Dr. Patrick appeared before a select committee instituted by the Speaker Hon. Anite Among, to investigate the alleged misappropriation of funds allocated to the Sports sector.
It all started well with the General Secretary of the National Council of Sports Dr. Patrick Ogwel providing accountability for the funds released to council for both first and second quarter for the financial year 2022/2023.
Dr Ogwel also revealed that poor funding to the Council made the Ugandan team that represented Uganda at the Commonwealth games in Birmingham go without funds and uniforms among other necessities forcing him to use his personal funds to facilitate the team. This claim was rubbished by the Minister.
This clash generated a serious debate with legislators questioning the accounting officer of the National Sports Council on the illegality of a government officer using personal funds to facilitate government activities.
Another clash between the Minister and the Dr. Ogwel was on the exact amount of money being used to renovate the Namboole National stadium. According to Dr. Ogwel, 438bn shillings is being used in renovating the only National stadium in the Country to which the Minister dismissed saying it’s 219 billion shillings.
The Situation forced the Minister to issue a warning to the General Secretary to stay in his lane while submitting to the Committee.
The tough talking Minister revealed how he has gotten information about the briefcase federations that have been receiving money from government through the National Council of Sports.
“I am sorry I was not keen on the operations of some of the Federations when I first took over office. Ogwang said.
“I have later learnt that some Federations without offices have been receiving money from NCS and it is something that I am going to work on.”
The committee resumes on Wednesday with other stakeholders in the sports sector appearing.
