Accounting officers to be personally held liable on unathorised spending, quality of service – Ggoobi

What the report says

Uganda’s Finance ministry has warned accounting officers that they could face personal accountability for unauthorized spending, poor budget discipline and service delivery failures. Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi said at a meeting at Speke Resort Munyonyo that government will no longer admit projects into the Public Investment Plan unless they have costed designs and credible feasibility studies. He also said ministries, departments and agencies must not commit funds outside approved plans or start recruitment without cleared wage provisions and written authorization from the Public Service ministry.

Ggoobi said the tighter rules are meant to curb corruption, reduce costly project changes during implementation and improve control over public resources. He cited payroll, pension and gratuity reviews that exposed wage management problems across government institutions, adding that some officers had recruited more staff than approved. According to the report, officials who could not justify such actions were removed from their roles as accounting officers.

Head of Public Service Lucy Nakyobe told the same meeting that citizens judge government by the quality of services they receive, not by budget size. She warned against corruption, inflated procurement, fictitious payments, conflicts of interest and unused funds returning at year-end. She also urged officers to spend more time monitoring projects in the field and to focus on outcomes in health, education and other public services. The remarks reflect a broader push in Uganda to strengthen accountability in public finance and improve delivery of government programmes.