In a rare case of an efficiently managed public institution in Uganda, the Insurance Training College (ITC) emerges as an island of financial discipline in a sea of inefficient state enterprises.
In his report for the 12 months ended June 2024, Auditor General Edward Akol delivers glowing praise: the College’s books are clean, its statements comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and its liquidity is not just adequate – it’s exemplary.
But behind the commendation lies a quiet dysfunction: an execution gap that threatens to erode the very mandate the College was created to uphold.
Clean accounts are no substitute for strategic delivery – and the College, by the report’s own admission, has fallen short.
Financially, the numbers sparkle. The College reported a net surplus of UGX1.824 billion, slightly lower than the UGX1.881 billion the year before – a dip the Auditor General attributes to increased depreciation charges, which rose from UGX568 million in 2023 to UGX774 million in 2024.
The return on assets – a key efficiency metric – stood at 12%, down from 19%, but still comfortably above the Auditor General’s benchmark of 5%.
This signals that the College is “doing well at increasing its profits with each shilling it spends.”
The College’s current ratio also improved, from 3.9 to 4.3, meaning it can meet its short-term obligations more than fourfold – a sign of both discipline and conservative risk appetite.
“This implies that it is able to meet its short-term obligations. But a high ratio may also indicate that the entity is not efficiently using its current assets or short-term financing facilities,” the Auditor General notes.
Sluggish mandate?
So far, so good. But when it comes to execution of its actual programmes, the College reads more like a sluggish bureaucratic middleweight than the agile sector leader it claims to be.
The Auditor General notes that out of 16 funded activities in the work plan, only 11 were fully implemented.
This shortfall was not due to budget constraints; the College actually received more than it had budgeted for – UGX11.073 billion against a revised budget of UGX10.589 billion, reflecting a 102.3% revenue performance.
However, critical initiatives stalled. A total of UGX58 million worth of procurement plans were not implemented, including UGX50 million for library material development and UGX8 million for maintenance and integration of the Diwala e-certificate platform.
The Auditor General notes that while the College cited in-house development as a cost-saving measure, “non-implementation of planned procurements delays service delivery,” signalled sluggish inefficiencies, cautioning that failure to follow procurement regulations “risks weakening transparency and setting a poor precedent”.
More troubling is the College’s under-delivery on key strategic mandates such as curriculum development, professional certification, sector research, and building insurance professionalism.
For instance, the College was supposed to increase revenue by 15%, but managed only 5%, from UGX10.53 billion in the 2022/23 financial year to UGX11.06 billion.
The Auditor General flagged this, remarking that “this may affect the entity’s ability to meet future obligations and or investments.”
The College also set a goal of 80% customer satisfaction, but achieved 78%, with its Customer Service Charter launched as late as May 2024 – barely a month to close of the financial year.
The associated brand audit was still “ongoing by end of financial year,” and the follow-on brand communication strategy had not been initiated.
And then there’s staff development – the very heart of a training institution.
Tribunal Backs URA in UGX 10.2 Billion Century Bottling Tax FightThe Auditor General expected 90% of staff to undergo capacity building, but the College managed just 67.5 percent.
Even IT infrastructure – a pillar of modern educational institutions – was stuck at square one.
The plan to develop an IT implementation strategy had barely begun, with the procurement of a consultant only “initiated by end of 2023/2024 financial year.”
The defense? The College indicated that contracts were signed late and spilled over into the next financial year, to which Akol directed that the College should “ensure proper and timely contract management and authorisation to avoid having contracts crossing over the financial year.”
The implementation mismatches
So, what explains this mismatch between excellent accounting and modest ambition?
Some answers may lie in the incentives of Uganda’s public administration. In a system where audit flags can trigger reputational damage – or worse – it is perhaps unsurprising that the College prefers to keep its nose clean rather than bold.
But as the report quietly implies, there is more to public service than clean books.
“Public value is not created by balance sheets alone,” the Auditor General notes before putting it clearly that “it is built through delivery.”
The College’s budget execution rate was high, with UGX9.713 billion audited in expenditure – about 88% of total receipts.
But the devil is in the detail: Five critical activities remained partially implemented, including strategic planning and digital upgrades.
This is not just inefficiency; it’s mission drift. And Uganda’s insurance industry, which struggles with low penetration and public trust, can ill afford a sluggish thought leader.
The College’s core mandate – to drive professionalism, innovation, and skills in the insurance sector – is not one that tolerates mediocrity.
The College is meant to be a catalyst, not a caretaker.
As Uganda gears up to deepen its capital markets, strengthen financial resilience, and expand access to insurance services, a dynamic and visionary College is more important than ever.
The Auditor General challenges the College on its “under-reaching.”
Uganda’s insurance future depends not on how well the College files receipts, but how boldly it reimagines what insurance training should look like in a fast-changing, risk-laden economy.
As it stands, the College is a top student who refuses to raise their hand in class – diligent, quiet, neat, but nowhere near the front of the line when it comes to pushing boundaries.
What the audit suggests is that the money is there, the autonomy is there and the mandate is clear but what’s missing is the will.
