The Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi has written to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives requesting for nomination of an accounting officer for the trade ministry to replace Geraldine Ssali.
Ggoobi is acting on a resolution of Parliament that “the Secretary to the Treasury should exercise his authority under section 11(2) (g) of the Public Finance Management Act. 2015 to withdraw the appointment and designation of Ms Geraldine Ssali as an Accounting Officer for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives.”
This follows Ssali’s alleged failure to control the regularity and proper use of money appropriated for procurement of renovation works on offices used by the Ministry at Farmer’s House.
These recommendations are contained in the Committee report presented to the House during a plenary sitting on Tuesday, 29th August 2023.
“Ms Geraldine Ssali should be investigated with a view of prosecution by the DPP for negligence of duty, disobedience of statutory duty, abuse of office and causing financial loss to Government,” reads the report in part.
The Committee Chairperson, Mwine Mpaka noted that in Financial Year 2021/2022, a supplementary request of Shs8 billion was made by then permanent secretary, Grace Adong, for rent of office premises. Parliament granted Shs5 billion for the purpose, where-after Adong was transferred from the Ministry and handed over office to Ssali.
Ssali, in May 2022, requested the Secretary to the Treasury for virement of the Shs5 billion from rent to renovation of Ministry offices, to which the PSST authorised a change of work plan to enable utilisation of the funds.
“To the utter shock of the Committee, it was established that 14 days earlier, even before a revised work plan could have been approved by PSST, Geraldine Ssali had authorised the initiation of the procurement process for renovation of office premises,” said Mwine Mpaka.
He added that Ssali’s actions raised suspicion and distrust on how she intended to utilise technical guidance of the PSST yet her request for virement was not legally tenable.
The Committee further observed that two different procurements for the renovation were initiated under domestic bidding with different sets of companies under the same procurement reference number.
“This is a clear indication that the procurement process for the on-going renovation works was tainted with fraud therefore rendering it illegal,” Mwine Mpaka added.
Parliament also recommended that the Accountant General “should with immediate effect deny Mr. Tom Opio access to the Electronic Government Procurement System. Opio, an office assistant was accused of engaging in procurement activities with the approval of the PS Ssali, despite it not being his designated role.
Ggoobi informs the minister that this recommendation has also been implemented.
“You are also informed that Mt. Tom Opio has been removed from the Electronic Government Procurement System and Management is advised to liaise with the Accountant General to ensure that there are no disruptions in the procurement processes,” Ggoobi writes.