IN SUMMARY: The PSST Ramathan Ggoobi and the Solicitor General authorized the Ministry of Trade P.S. Geraldine Ssali to reallocate money meant for an exorbitant rent of Kampala Kingdom, to nobly renovate the permanent government building housing her Ministry. Surprisingly, the duo kicked out Ms. Ssali from being an accounting officer for purportedly committing a crime they had authorized.
On June 2, 2022, the Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi officially wrote to his Trade counterpart, Geraldine Ssali authorizing the veriment (reallocation) of Shs5bn from rent to renovation of the ministry premises.
“I (Ggoobi) acknowledge receipt of your (Ssali) letter dated 20th May 2022, for a virement of USH.5,000,000,000 from rent to renovation of the Ministry premises in the Budget FY2021/22 under vote 0-15 Ministry of Trade,” said Ggoobi.
Ms. Ssali had written to PSST nobly reasoning that renovating the Farmer’s House is much better than spending an expanded Shs8bn in rent. Ggoobi also acknowledged the wisdom and noted that it was only proper to renovate instead of renting.
“Given that renovation of the existing government offices at Farmer’s House is more cost-effective in the long run, pursuant to Section 14, Subsection 7 of the Public Finance Management Regulation of 2016, this is therefore to authorize you to change your work plan to enable you to utilize the above funds for renovation of the Ministry premises as requested,” Ggoobi reasoned.
Meanwhile the Solicitor General on June 14, 2022 also formally cleared Ms. Ssali to use renovation money to renovate Farmer’s House.
“This is to advise that the contract for the provision of repair and renovation of office space at Farmer’s House with M/s Sarick Construction Limited at a contract price of USH6,063,319,346 has been cleared,” said the Solicitor General.
In a twisting turn of event, the two who satisfyingly agreed and authorized Ssali to renovate Farmer’s House, have turned against her and removed her from being the accounting officer of the Ministry of Trade.
Ggoobi has also gone ahead and asked for the naming of a new accounting officer.