State Minister for sports Peter Ogwang has turned the table on federations over failure to account for funds allocated to them by the National Council of Sports.
A tough-talking Ogwang lambasted the federations stating that they are quick at demanding to fund but slow on accountability.
He wondered why it is only three federations, the Federation of Uganda Football Association, Uganda Netball Federation and the Uganda Boxing Federation, usually at loggerheads with the National Council of Sports out of the 51 federations.
“Why are we here? Suspicious accountability! Why should it be suspicious? Why is it not clean? Why is it only three federations out of the 51?” Ogwang asked.
“As far as I am still minister, you will account for the money. I don’t want you to come here and say there is a witch hunt,” he warned.
Ogwang further added: “I have found a lot of street talk between the National Council of Sports and the federations.”
“If the street talk and what is happening is true, in my tenure, even if Museveni gave me five months, it will stop!” he promised Parliament’s Accountability Committee.
The ongoing investigation into the allegations of financial mismanagement in the Uganda Netball Federation stems from Shs100m funding for the men’s national team’s trip to South Africa.
Out of the Shs100m, the UNF president Sarah Babirye Kityo claimed Shs30m was given to NCS Secretary General Bernard Ogwel as a kickback.
Ogwel denied the allegation while Kityo’s vice-president technical, Richard Muhumuza, accused her of ‘eating the money’.
The Asuman Basalirwa-led PAC has since handed over Kityo and two federation executives, the vice president technical, and the treasurer of Parliament’s Criminal Investigations Department over the accountability of the funds.