Bigirima Replaces Sacked Kagole Kivumbi As Secretary to the Judicial Service Commission

By Top Newsroom

The Permanent Secretary of the ministry of General, Labour and Social Development, Pius Bigirima has been appointed the new Secretary to the Judicial Service Commission, replacing Kagole Kivumbi who was recently sacked.

In a letter dated July 19 which sacked Kagole by Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury (PSST), Keith Muhakanizi informed Kagole that he cannot appoint him to serve as Accounting Officer to the Judiciary for the Financial Year 2019/2020 basing on the Internal Auditor General’s report.

“In accordance with Section 11 (2) (g) of the Public Finance Management Act 2015 and based on the report of the Internal Auditor General, this is to inform you that I am unable to appoint as the Accounting Officer for Vote 101-Judiciary for the Financial Year 2019/20”, Muhakanizi wrote.

Now, the Head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, Dr J Mitala, has Friday written to Bigirima notifying him of his new appointment and asked him to assume office with immediate effect.

“The Appointing Authority has Directed that you be transferred from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to the Judiciary as the Secretary to the Judiciary with immediate effect,” reads the letter in parts.

“On receipt of this letter, prepare to hand over your office within the existing Regulations and report to your new station without delay,” adds the letter.

Kagole’s woes started after a whistleblower petition on suspected collusion to embezzle Shs34 billion from the Judiciary. The expenses were also queried by the Auditor General as money mischarged.

The auditor general in his report of 2017/2018 noted that expenditure of over Shs34 billion was incurred on various items without appropriately applying government of Uganda chart of accounts as prescribed by the accountant general.

The description of the expenditure items were not consistent with item coding on the chart of accounts resulting into a mischarge as the accounting officer did not seek for authority to reallocate resources to the required expenditure items.

Kagole argued that the money was spent on Court operational funds, mediation costs, Court sessions, imprest, locus visits, HIV medical allowances and expenditure for Monitoring and Evaluation since these items have no direct budget lines.