Inside Uganda’s Auditor General’s Report: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Uganda’s Auditor General warns Parliament that rising revenue is being undermined by growing public debt, procurement leakages, weak programme governance and service delivery breakdowns across key sectors.

Uganda’s Auditor General Edward Akol has issued a wide-ranging warning to Parliament: the country is collecting more revenue than ever, yet persistent weaknesses in procurement, project execution, asset management, staffing, and programme governance are eroding service delivery and exposing public resources to waste, misuse and avoidable costs.

The Annual Report of the Auditor General to Parliament — Key Highlights for the audit year ended 31st December 2025 paints a picture of a state under pressure. 

Revenue is rising, but so is public debt. Major national programmes such as the Parish Development Model (PDM) show progress in disbursement but also serious governance and compliance gaps. 

Critical public systems, from electricity transmission to hospital equipment, medicines supply chains, and local government works, remain constrained by weak planning and implementation. 

At the macro level, the report notes a strong upward trend in domestic revenue collection over four financial years, with Uganda Revenue Authority collections rising from UGX 22Tn in FY 2021/22 to UGX 32.4Tn in FY 2024/25. 

The growth has been driven largely by taxes on gains, profits, fees and licences, Value Added Tax, and customs and excise duties. 

The Auditor General attributes part of the improvement to compliance tools such as the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution and Digital Tax Stamps, which have helped increase taxpayer compliance.

However, despite the revenue gains, Uganda continues to perform poorly on the tax-to-GDP ratio, which remains around 13.4 percent, below the benchmark of 15 percent recommended for developing countries.

 The report points to a persistent structural imbalance, noting that agriculture contributes significantly to GDP but generates relatively little tax revenue, while government tax receipts remain heavily concentrated in trade and manufacturing. 

This imbalance, the Auditor General warns, leaves Uganda heavily dependent on borrowing to bridge the financing gap. 

Public debt is one of the most pressing alarms raised in the report. Uganda’s total public debt climbed from UGX 69.20Tn in June 2021 to UGX 114.60Tn in June 2025, representing growth of approximately 65.6 percent in five years.

 Beyond the rise in debt, the Auditor General highlights a significant shift toward domestic financing. 

Domestic debt increased sharply from UGX 39.16Tn in June 2024 to UGX 59.02Tn in June 2025, overtaking external debt and pushing its share of the debt portfolio to 51.5 percent, up from 41.83 percent the previous year.

Although the public debt-to-GDP ratio rose from 45.95 percent in 2023/24 to 50.29 percent in 2024/25 and remains below the government ceiling of 54 percent, the Auditor General warns that the interest burden is tightening fiscal space. 

Domestic debt interest payments to total revenues increased from 21 percent to 23.66 percent, moving away from the National Charter for Fiscal Responsibility benchmark of 12.5 percent. 

The report also notes that the government entered into a one-off agreement with Bank of Uganda to issue a 10-year amortized bond worth UGX 7.779Tn to address outstanding funds borrowed during the Covid-19 period. 

The Auditor General also draws attention to inefficiencies in tax dispute resolution, warning that the Tax Appeals Tribunal is facing a rapidly expanding backlog of high-value cases. 

Pending cases rose from 169 in FY 2022/23 to 476 in FY 2024/25, with unresolved disputes valued at UGX 1.5Tn. 

Average resolution time stands at ten months, with many cases taking longer. The report links the backlog to limited disposal capacity and static funding, noting that despite tribunal membership increasing from five to nine members in 2022, the budget has remained at UGX 7.7Bn, inadequate for its growing workload. 

Procurement emerges as one of the most serious cross-cutting vulnerabilities undermining value for money in government spending. 

A thematic audit revealed major inadequacies in the standardisation of specifications and prices for common-user works, services and supplies, leading to wide price variances across entities. 

The report highlights disparities in the costs of office accommodation construction, road construction per square meter, and even furniture procurement for similar specifications, suggesting that government is paying widely different prices for comparable items.

The report also notes failure to prepare multi-year procurement plans, with 111 procurements worth UGX 501.37Bn initiated in prior periods and completed in the current year without the required planning. 

This creates uncertainty over funding availability, accumulation of domestic arrears, and risks of project delays or cancellations. 

The Auditor General further identified unplanned procurements worth UGX 7.72Bn conducted outside approved procurement plans without evidence of emergencies, as well as procurement splitting worth UGX 158.29Bn, which undermines competition and increases costs.

Implementation rates were also found to be low. In a sample of nineteen entities, planned procurements worth UGX 5.07Tn were matched by awarded contracts of UGX 2.39Tn, an implementation rate of 47 percent.

Out of the awarded contracts, only UGX 353.46Bn worth were completed, representing an implementation rate of just 14.8 percent. 

The report further assesses the Electronic Government Procurement system, noting that while e-GP was expected to enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency, major system challenges persist. 

These include insufficient oversight support, lack of electronic submission capacity to the Solicitor General, duplication of procurement entries, reporting failures, procurement planning gaps, and inconsistent reference numbers. 

The Auditor General warns that these weaknesses compromise the core objectives of e-GP and pose risks of regulatory non-compliance. 

The Parish Development Model, one of Uganda’s flagship poverty alleviation programmes, received extensive scrutiny. 

In FY 2024/25, Parliament appropriated UGX 1.1Tn for PDM, of which UGX 1.06Tn was allocated to the Parish Revolving Fund to finance 10,594 SACCOs across 176 Local Governments and Kampala Capital City Authority. 

The Auditor General notes that UGX 1.06Tn, representing 99.9 percent, was timely disbursed to SACCOs, and all loan applications were processed through the PDM Information System and disbursed via the Wendi application.

However, the audit uncovered major weaknesses at household level. Of the cumulative UGX  3.26Tn released to SACCOs, only UGX 2.8Tn, representing 84 percent, had been disbursed to households by the end of FY 2024/25, leaving UGX 508.65Bn undisbursed. 

Physical inspections revealed cases of ineligible projects, non-existent projects, diversion of funds worth UGX 0.263Bn, and households receiving the revolving fund multiple times. 

The report also highlights weaknesses in SACCO governance structures, poor reporting compliance, limited Wendi agency coverage across 121 local governments, and challenges in tablet distribution, functionality, training and connectivity. 

In the energy sector, the Auditor General warns of underutilisation of Uganda’s electricity generation capacity despite major investments. Karuma Hydropower Plant produced a net energy output of 808.27GWh, representing only 30 percent of its declared available capacity of 2,652GWh, while Isimba produced 1,046.41GWh, representing 72 percent of its declared capacity. 

The report warns that low dispatch may hinder identification of latent defects during the defects liability period and notes that only UGX 148.16Bn, representing 46.8 percent of expected revenue, was realised.

Transmission constraints resulted in deemed energy costs of UGX 26.94Bn, while several transformers remained idle for extended periods of up to 41 months, reflecting weak asset utilisation. 

Following UMEME’s concession expiry on 31st March 2025, UEDCL assumed responsibility for a greatly expanded distribution network. 

By June 2025, UEDCL’s customer base had grown to 2.2 million and its asset base to UGX 2Tn, but service delivery challenges persisted in network reliability, outage management, complaint resolution and metering. 

Oil development activities also face schedule risks. Government’s first oil target remains mid-2026, yet project completion rates for Tilenga, Kingfisher and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline lag behind planned targets. 

The Auditor General also notes inadequate funding for the National Oil Spill Response and Monitoring Infrastructure project, posing unmitigated environmental and safety risks ahead of first oil. 

In the extractives sector, the report highlights outstanding mineral royalties. Mineral royalties amounting to UGX 2.82Bn remained unpaid beyond the statutory thirty-day period, denying government timely revenue. 

Environmental degradation is another major concern. The Auditor General reports widespread wetland encroachment across major water bodies, with limited restoration enforcement and inadequate resourcing.

In Karamoja, inspections of valley tanks and dams revealed that 72 percent of inspected valley tanks were heavily silted, reducing water storage capacity and undermining livestock and agricultural productivity. 

The health sector faces looming sustainability risks. Development partners are expected to withdraw USD 312.804Mn in budget support from FY 2025/26, affecting immunisation, malaria, HIV, TB and emergency preparedness programmes. 

Audits of essential medicines and health supplies found that while UGX 1.393Tn was allocated to National Medical Stores, annual needs stood at UGX 1.574Tn, leaving an 11 percent funding shortfall. 

Delayed deliveries, poor planning, expiry of medicines and recurrent stockouts were documented, forcing patients to purchase medicines privately.

The Auditor General also reports that ICU equipment worth UGX 150Bn delivered to hospitals remains underutilised due to unreliable power supply, oxygen system gaps, staffing constraints and inadequate maintenance budgets. 

Maintenance funding has remained around UGX 7.6Bn since FY 2015/16, far below the required UGX 33Bn. 

Uganda’s public service staffing crisis further compounds service delivery failures. As at December 2024, the approved establishment stood at 658,104 positions, but only 356,504 were filled, leaving a gap of 301,600 vacancies. 

Referral hospitals, primary health care services and public universities were among the most critically understaffed. 

The report also notes the difficulty in attracting health specialists such as anaesthetists, psychiatrists and emergency medicine specialists due to high qualification requirements and uncompetitive wages.

Infrastructure delivery remains another major weakness. A sample of 70 projects worth UGX 6.527Tn experienced delays averaging between 153 and 1,089 days, caused by delayed compensation of project-affected persons, delayed site handover, delayed payments, contractor capacity gaps and weak supervision. 

These delays increase costs and deny citizens timely access to services. 

In education and local government, the Auditor General highlights governance gaps, weak financial reporting frameworks, staffing shortages, idle repurposed institutions, and land titling risks. 

Lower local governments were found to face chronic revenue under-collection, under-absorption of funds, defective community projects, and staffing vacancy rates as high as 57 percent. 

Road maintenance grants were also undermined by inadequate equipment, incomplete works and weak road inventories. 

The report concludes that while Uganda has made progress in mobilising more revenue and financing key programmes, weaknesses in planning, procurement, governance, staffing and supervision continue to undermine accountability and service delivery outcomes. 

Auditor General Edward Akol stresses that timely implementation of audit recommendations remains critical to strengthening effective utilisation of public resources and ensuring that government spending translates into tangible benefits for citizens.