Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance, Ramadhan Ggoobi has declared Dr. Benard Patrick Ogwel, General Secretary of the National Council of Sports (NCS), unfit to continue as the council’s accounting officer.
In a letter dated July 25, addressed to the NCS Chairperson and copied to the Minister of Education and Sports, Ggoobi requested the chairperson to recommend a new candidate for the role for the Financial Year 2024/25 saying that Ogwel is ineligible to hold the position.
“Section 11(2)(g) of the PFM 2015 as amended, states that appoint or designate accounting officers in accordance with this Act, except that the secretary to the treasury shall not appoint or designate a person an accounting officer where, according to the report of an internal Auditor General of the Auditor General, that person has not accounted for the pubic resources or assets of the vote for financial year,” reads part of the letter
“Based on the recommendations from the Auditor General and internal Auditor General for FY 2024/2025, the current Accounting officer, Dr. Benard Ogwel, is ineligible to continue executing this role, reads another part of the letter that URN has seen.
According to article 39 of the National Sports Act 2023, which governs the structure of the NCS, the General Secretary is appointed by the council’s board and serves as the accounting officer of the council.
In response to Ggoobi’s request, the Chairperson of the NCS, Ambrose Tashobya, in his letter dated June 30th, asked the Finance Ministry to varnish them with more explanation. Tashobya stated that after receiving Ggoobi’s letter, he convened a meeting which resulted in four resolutions.
Among these was a request to formally draw the attention of the Minister of Education and Sports to the matter for further guidance, given the importance of the government projects currently being executed by the NCS.
The meeting also resolved that “the General Secretary of the council be re-instated as the accounting officer for FY 2024/2025,” among other resolutions.
Dr. Ogwel’s tenure at the NCS began in 2017 when he joined as an assistant General Secretary under Nicholas Muramagi. He became the acting General Secretary in 2018 after Muramagi was involved in a motor accident, and was officially appointed full General Secretary in 2021.
However, Ogwel’s previous two years in office have been marred by controversy. In 2022 and 2023. He was embroiled in disputes with former Netball Federation President Sarah Babirye Kityo, who accused him of corruption. Kityo alleged that Ogwel demanded kickbacks for disbursing funds to support the National Netball Team (She Cranes).
In 2023, Deputy Inspector General of Government Patricia Okiria ordered Ogwel to repay 100 million shillings to the Uganda Netball Federation.
This amount included 29.7 million shillings for a Namibian Netball tournament that was neither spent nor accounted for, and 70.5 million shillings related to inflated air ticket costs for the same event.
*****
URN