The Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) of Parliament has ordered for a forensic audit into the Shs500 million gorilla permit fraud that rocked the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) last year.
The directive was issued on Tuesday as the committee interfaced with officials from UWA in regards last year’s report by the Auditor General.
“You know that is an audit ordered by the Minister and by standards when the Minister orders for an audit, that one goes to him. Now, we are also ordering for a forensic audit. We are also ordering a forensic in the same affairs,” COSASE chairperson, Medard Sseggona Lubega said.
The development followed a report by the Auditor General that he was denied access to the chimpanzee and gorilla booking data during the audit process.
The Auditor General last year picked interest into the saga in which government lost huge sums of money after Uganda Wildlife Authority officials printed gorilla permits whose funds were diverted from the authority’s bank accounts.
Whereas the Ministry of Tourism claimed only shs500 million was lost during this scam, insider says a lot more was lost.
The ministry last year asked the Auditor General to undertake a comprehensive forensic audit covering the period between July 2020 and September 2023 covering gorilla and chimpanzee bookings at Bwindi, Mgahinga and Kibale National Parks as well as Kyambura Gorge (Queen Elizabeth National Park).
In the Auditor General’s report, it was noted that officials were stopped from looking into chimpanzee and gorilla booking data.
The report also shows that although UWA reported to have collected Shs22.461 billion as revenue from gorilla and Chimpanzee tracking in 2022/23, his request for data regarding financial transactions such as records of invoices, payment and reconciliation to the system was denied, a decision he said limited his audit work into verifying the correctness of the said earned revenue.
