Makerere University officials have dismissed what they called “another set of falsehoods” published in a local tabloid and an online publication owned by a television company while quoting a fake audit report claiming that officials at Kiira Motors while still a project under the Center for Research in Transportation Technologies (CRTT) in 2016,failed to account for money in petty cash and other items.
The University officials who talked to Ugandaupdate news said that the purported report by the University ‘s Directorate of Internal Audit for the financial year 2017/2018, was fake since it was not sanctioned by the University Management including the University Council as required by the Institution’s accounting procedures .
“Ask the author’s of that fake news to show you the instruments calling for that audit and the management report which should go hand in hand with such audit reports. These falsehoods should be discarded and not given any credence because they hold us back as a country in terms of economic growth and national development,” officials who declined to be named because they are not the official spokes people for Makerere University stated .
The Makerere officials said that this was not the first time the same fake report has been reported in a local daily. “ The same fake report was featured in a local daily in 2017 and was similarly dismissed with the contempt it deserves.
“ As far as Makerere University is concerned all the information about Kiira Motors and its accountabilities have been provided in the right fora and such information is in the public domain. Kiira Motors is now a separate legal entity and its audited financial statement for the financial year 2018-2019 is available on- line and can also be got on the company’s website ,” the officials said.
“ This is an obvious witch-hunt , falsehoods and malicious propaganda being peddled by selfish individuals who want to sabotage government’s national program to produce cars locally and also dent the good image of Makerere university ,” they added.
The officials explained that the issue of appointing a full board at Kiira Motors was being handled by the share holders who are the government of Uganda which has the majority shareholding of 96% and Makerere University with 4%.
