The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Local Government (PAC-LG), chaired by Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze, has questioned officials from the Office of the Chief Government Valuer over persistent failures in the valuation and management of public assets across local governments.
The officials, led by Chief Government Valuer Gilbert Kermundu, faced scrutiny over delays in valuing government property, which have left several local governments unable to dispose of obsolete assets despite making repeated requests for valuation services.
Nambooze said the committee had established during its oversight engagements with various districts that local governments had written several letters to the Chief Government Valuer seeking assistance but had received no response.
She said the failure to value public assets had hindered local governments from disposing of them, raising concerns about accountability and proper management of government property.
The interrogation also focused on allegations that the Valuation Department routinely asks districts to provide fuel and overnight allowances for officials to travel and assess public assets.
However, Kermundu denied that the department solicits money, explaining that staff shortages and inadequate operational funding make it difficult for valuers to reach distant districts using their monthly budgets.
He said local governments are expected to meet the transport costs of valuers but often fail to provide the required funds.
Committee members questioned why the central Valuation Department lacked an independent field operations budget to address recurring audit queries raised against local governments.
The Office of the Chief Government Valuer consequently asked Parliament to increase the department’s funding by at least Shs10 billion to strengthen its operations.
In September this year, Nambooze’s committee uncovered significant discrepancies in asset valuations in several local governments.
In Luweero District, officials had independently valued motorcycles at Shs12 million each while placing the value of a functional motor vehicle at only Shs4 million. The committee also discovered land values recorded as declining instead of appreciating.
Nambooze accused some administrative units of deliberately undervaluing public property worth billions of shillings.
“We suspect they are doing this to facilitate the disposal of public property to private buyers at prices well below actual market worth,” Nambooze said.
Meanwhile, Katerera County MP Boaz Atwijukire raised concern over the failure by several government entities to establish asset registers, attributing the challenge partly to the high cost of valuing public property.
Citing Rubirizi District, which is now 15 years old but still lacks an asset register, Atwijukire said local governments have struggled to engage government valuers to assess and establish the actual value of their assets because of the costs involved.
He noted that the challenge affects several government entities operating under limited budgets, making it difficult to finance comprehensive asset valuation exercises.
Atwijukire expressed hope that an upcoming report would propose practical solutions, including a dedicated national budget allocation to support asset valuation across local governments.
He urged the government to adequately fund and empower its valuers instead of transferring the financial burden to local governments, which are already struggling with limited resources.
