National Council of Sports in hot soup for under declaring non-tax revenue collections

By Emmanuel Sekago

Kampala – There have been numerous cases of corruption in other government institutions but the one in sports, especially at the National Council of Sports (NCS) needs to be handled by an iron hand.

According to the select Committee of Parliament report after investigations on the National Council of Sports operations has exposed the serious corruption that everyone did not know and how monies have been ending in other people’s hands and not doing the real work.

One needs to understand that the Committee chaired by MP Laura Kanushu that represented its report on Tuesday to the house was convened by the Speaker of Parliament  Anita Among following complaints over the lack of funding for the Uganda Netball Federation (She Cranes) for the 2022 First Five Netball Championships in New Zealand, and world qualifiers for Africa held in South Africa to determine the African queen.

In its report, the committee found that NCS failed to provide relevant documentation for its expenditure, while it also found inconsistencies in the reports presented and the actual expenditure. Looking at 5 TOR 5: To appraise the sources, quantum and management of Non Tax Revenue by the National Council of Sports.

The Minister of State for Finance Planning and Economic Development, Amos Lugoiobi informed the Committee that the ministry approved a non-tax revenue (NTR) projection amounting to Shs1,950,000,000 for the National Council of Sports in FY 2022/23.

Contrary to the submission of MoFPED, the NCS informed the Committee that for FY 2022/23, an NTR projection amounting to Shs781,466,375 was approved by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and that it had collected Shs567,228,000 representing 72.58% at 31^st December, 2022: as indicated in annex 8.

The National Council of Sports further informed the Committee that the sources of its NTR included; Rental charges from facilities within the Lugogo complex, parking fees, billboard/advertising space fees from hiring out the hockey pitch, cricket oval, tennis courts and the Lugogo indoor stadium.

Shockingly, NCS submitted in the report that it still gets rent from UNF which shifted from the Lugogo complex to a new resident in Old Kampala, also rent from defunct Africell company as enlisted sources of revenue submitted yet they outdated and could not have been a proper reflection to the NTR collected by it.

Also other inconsistencies discovered from NCS’ reporting for expenditure the Shs3.5b that had been distributed to 40 federations and associations, to which they N(CS) failed to provide further breakdown of specifically how much was received by each federation, whereas the committee requested for evidence of transfer of funds to the National Sports Associations and Federations, including bank statements and receipts, NCS did not submit this information.

The Committee also recommended the Auditor General to carry out out a special audit to verify the exact NTR projections and collections by the NCS lot FY 2022/23.

The Committee also recommended that all NTRS collected including cash collections must be strictly accounted for by NCS and further, National Council of Sports should strictly adhere to provisions under Section 29 of the PFMA in relation to collection and remission of NTR.