By Jeremiah Urowayino

The Senate on Thursday vowed to issue a warrant for arrests on heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), which failed to appear before it.

Senate Committee Chairman on Public Accounts Sen. Matthew Urhoghide made this disclosure when the committee met to hear the defence of the MDAs on the queries, that the heads of the MDAs were to appear before the senate to defend themselves .

However, non of the agencies expected to defend the audit report queries appeared before the committee, despite receiving notices from the committee to appear.

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Urhoghide said the MDAs must appear before it, to answer queries raised in the audited reports by the office of auditor-general.

“Warrant of arrest is the exclusive preserve of the senate because it is prescribed in our constitution.

“If you check section 89 of the constitution, very clear in the last resort, says that you must force anybody to come and give an account of any expenditure, or where it suspects that there is any infraction or corruption that have been elicited.

“I want to say that we are going to do just that. I have said it, once we invite you here, you do not come, we give you the first warning and if you do not come, we issue a warrant of arrest.
“Government is a continuum, so they have to come and give account,” he said.

Urhoghide said the MDAs were invited to answer queries raised on public finance spending in the 2015 audited reports of the OAGF.

He said the report raised some queries on the spending activities of the MDAs, hence their invitation.

He said many of the agencies had yet to respond to the letter inviting them to respond to the queries.

He said some ministers of some heads of agencies were not ready to be accountable for their spendings on the public fund, noting that the 9th Senate would not tolerate the act of not appearing to defend their expenditure.

Urhoghide listed agencies that did not appear to defend the queries against them on public spending to include the Ministry of Information and Culture and Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

Others were the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, and National Population Commission.