Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has ordered the arrest of the top management of the Microfinance Support Centre Limited (MSC). The chairperson, Muwada Nkunyingi, on Tuesday ordered the arrest of its Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, John Peter Mujuni, and the directors, after they failed to honour a second invitation to appear before the Committee.
The officials from the Microfinance Support Centre Limited (MSC) had been summoned to respond to queries in the Auditor General’s report about alleged financial impropriety and management performance. Muwada Nkunyingi said the committee had invited MSC twice and its top executive had deliberately refused to appear. He said the committee would therefore use its powers to compel the officials to appear, including ordering their arrest.
The committee’s decision follows concerns raised by the Auditor General over the financial management and operations. The Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2024/2025 showed that MSC incurred a loss of 22.67 billion shillings. Loans worth more than 63 billion shillings had been reported as written off.
The audit also raised concerns about outdated collateral used to secure loans, weak loan recovery, poor performance of restructured loans, inadequate monitoring, and under-collection of outstanding loans.
The committee was told that some loan securities had remained outdated for as long as nine years, exposing public funds to increased risk. The Auditor General further questioned the management of funds under the Emyooga programme.
The committee cited13.21 billion shillings that remained unutilized and were returned at the end of the financial year. The audit also pointed to weaknesses in procurement, including failure to fully implement planned procurements, inadequate mechanisms for tracking performance and weaknesses in the management of the company’s non-current assets.
Nakifuma County MP Robert Ssekitoleko said Microfinance Support Centre Limited (MSC) management must be compelled to account for public funds. Budadiri East MP, Julius Nakiyi, warned that MSC could be heading towards collapse if urgent corrective measures were not taken.
Jinja South MP, Timothy Batuwa, raised concerns over the disbursement of loans to beneficiaries whose identities and eligibility he questioned, citing the more than Shs63 billion in loans written off.
He called for the Ministry of Finance to freeze further disbursements to MSC until the institution accounts for the funds already committed and recommended the removal of the chief executive. Nkunyingi said COSASE would not allow government agencies and state enterprises to selectively determine whether or not they should appear before Parliament.
He accused MSC of previously seeking protection from the Speaker of Parliament after an earlier invitation by the committee, but said the current Parliament had made it clear that accounting officers must personally appear and account for public resources.
“We shall not inherit any syndicate,” Nkunyingi said, insisting that every Auditor General’s report submitted to COSASE was subject to scrutiny. He said MSC’s status as a company did not exempt it from parliamentary accountability because the Government of Uganda has an interest and shareholding in the institution.
Nkunyingi said the committee would go beyond the failure to attend the hearing and investigate why MSC had repeatedly sought to avoid parliamentary scrutiny and whether individuals or institutions had attempted to shield the entity from accountability.
The order against MSC comes as the new COSASE leadership moves to assert Parliament’s oversight authority over government agencies, public corporations and state enterprises. The Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Marksons Oboth-Oboth, last week warned accounting officers from dodging interface with parliamentary committees.
The order makes MSC the second government entity in two days to be forced to appear before the committee after Uganda Airlines.The committee on Monday summoned the Uganda Airlines Chief Executive Officer Girma Wake and members of the airline’s top management after they failed to appear for a scheduled interface.
However, Uganda Airlines has since communicated with the committee to explain its absence. Girma wrote to COSASE on Tuesday morning, indicating that the airline’s management team would be available to interface with the committee on Thursday as had been scheduled-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
