Mr. Brendan Rogers:

I thank the Chairman and Members of the Oireachtas joint committee for meeting me today to discuss the recent events in Uganda. My organisation has appreciated their support for many years of the programme. Without that support we would not have the programme.

I shall start by expressing my deepest concern about the misappropriation of Irish Aid funds in Uganda. I have watched the development of Uganda, from the mid-1980s when it was regarded as a failed state after a generation of brutal dictatorial rule and civil strife, into a stable, relatively peaceful, modern but far from perfect democracy of recent years. Most of us will remember the depredations of Idi Amin and Milton Obote.

I am committed to the aid programme in Uganda having served there as head of mission for two years from 1998 to 2000. The recovery and transformation of Uganda has been made possible through the efforts of the Ugandan people, together with international donors, including a significant contribution made by Ireland. As Members will be aware, a special investigation was carried out by the Auditor General of Uganda which discovered the misappropriation of €4 million of Irish Aid funds that had been provided by Ireland specifically for northern Uganda. As the Chairman said, our response was immediate and decisive. The Tánaiste suspended all Irish assistance, totalling €16 million, that was due to be channelled through the Government of Uganda in 2012. He demanded the return of the €4 million misappropriated and announced an immediate investigation into the findings of the Auditor General. A team from the evaluation and audit unit of the Department travelled to Uganda within days and they will report to the Tánaiste shortly. He has indicated that he will release the report and he is committed to implementing any recommendations contained in the report.

The report of the auditor general into the handling of aid funds by the Office of the Prime Minister found that there was significant financial mismanagement of the Peace Recovery and Development Plan for northern Uganda. The PRDP had been established to rebuild infrastructure in the region after decades of conflict and the ravages of Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army. The Auditor General found that an elaborate and sophisticated fraud had been perpetrated involving a high level of collusion that would have been difficult for any normal audit systems to uncover. The Auditor General's special investigation found that over €12 million received from Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, of which the Irish Aid component is €4 million, had been diverted into unauthorised accounts controlled by the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda and a significant proportion of these funds were unaccounted for.

I travelled to Kampala and, together with our ambassador in Kampala, met the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Finance and Economic Development of Uganda. I made it clear to the Ugandan authorities that the Tánaiste and the Irish Government regarded it as absolutely intolerable that development assistance, given by the people of Ireland, should be misappropriated or diverted. I reiterated the Tánaiste's clear statement that Irish funding had to be repaid as a matter of urgency. I emphasised that all necessary actions should be taken to pursue those guilty of the crime and that the control weaknesses identified in the report of the Auditor General be corrected.

The Ugandan Government has since confirmed in writing that: all Irish Aid funds that have been misappropriated will be reimbursed; that the officials against whom financial impropriety has been established will be prosecuted; and that strong measures will be undertaken to tighten their internal controls. The Tánaiste has welcomed the commitment and our ambassador in Kampala will work closely with the Ugandan authorities to ensure that these actions are followed through. However, the suspension of €16 million of funding due to be channelled through the Government of Uganda remains in place as we closely examine our options for engagement with Uganda in the future.

Ireland's aid programme is strongly focused on the poorest people and communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The Government will not provide financial support under our development co-operation programme unless it is clear that Irish money is being spent for the purpose for which it was allocated. Funding programmes through Government systems is an important tool in achieving strong development outcomes and empowering national Governments to deliver and take ownership of the provision of services. This is essential if the improvements that we put in place are to be sustainable in the long term but it can only take place when such systems are accountable, transparent and effective.

In the case of Uganda, the independence and strength of the Auditor General are a clear sign of Ugandan Government accountability systems working well and the importance of assisting in this work. Ireland has provided technical and financial support to his office for a number of years in order to build the skills and capacity required for the conduct of complex investigations. The Auditor General also visited Ireland in 2001 to learn about our systems of accountability. Ireland's support of the Auditor General was strengthened after the previous Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs met the Auditor General during its visit to Uganda in 2008 and it endorsed his work.

The findings of the Auditor General in this case are deeply disturbing and affect the excellent reputation of the aid programme. However, the fact that the Auditor General is now in a position to make them is a demonstration of the increased capacity and the determination of progressive and forceful elements within the Ugandan Administration to enforce accountability in the use of Government and donor money. It is only by building national accountable systems that corruption can be fought and eliminated. If we are in a position to resume development assistance to Uganda further assistance to strengthen the Auditor General's office must be an essential component.

Our aid programme in Ugandan is regularly examined and evaluated in order to ensure that we achieve effectiveness and value for money. It is done in a number of complementary ways: through auditors based in our embassy in Kampala; through the evaluation and audit team at headquarters; through international accountancy firms which we commission to carry out audits; through the national audit offices of our partner governments; and through the Department's audit committee that provides an independent appraisal of Irish Aid's audit and evaluation, meets the Comptroller and Auditor General and publishes an annual report on its work. We have invested heavily in our financial tracking systems and there is real time access to all of our financial transactions that allows us to have rigorous control and oversight of what moneys are spent in the field. It is clear that, notwithstanding all of the checks and balances, funding programmes through government systems in more volatile regions of the world can be challenging, as we can see in this case. We are committed to ensuring that we learn from what has occurred in Uganda and strengthen our systems of risk identification and management, as well as monitoring and audit, in order to minimise the potential for the misuse of funds in the future. In this regard we will look closely at the conclusions and recommendations contained in the evaluation and audit team's report that will be presented to the Tánaiste shortly.

Ireland has had a bilateral aid programme with Uganda since 1994. The programme is focused on reducing poverty among some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in the country. Our aid programme in Uganda is designed to reduce the incidence of HIV and AIDS; to build schools and provide education for poor children; to reduce the incidence of gender based violence; to improve government accountability; to promote protect human rights; to help develop the capacity of the private sector to provide jobs and economic opportunities for Ugandans; and, in particular, to provide support for Karamoja which is one of the poorest and most marginalised regions of the country.

Since commencing our work in Uganda, we have witnessed significant improvements in the quality of life for the Ugandan people.

Peace has returned to most of the country. Some 8.3 million boys and girls are in primary schools, compared to 2.5 million in 1997. The HIV prevalence rate has reduced dramatically from 18% in the 1990s to just over 6% today. Most importantly, poverty has more than halved over the past two decades. These are real achievements which have been made possible with the support of donors such as Ireland.

Today, Uganda stands at a crossroads, faced as it is with economic and political decisions that will significantly affect its future prospects. Substantial oil reserves have been found in the west of the country, which have the potential to double Uganda's total income within ten years. However, this oil wealth will also bring many challenges. Uganda has the potential to achieve sustainable development for all her people. In order to build on this, the Ugandan Government must strengthen its response to corruption. This can only come from strong political leadership and from the development of more transparent and accountable systems. Development partners are ready to support Uganda to achieve this but we want to see compliance with the systems and the full application of the rule of law for any wrongdoing by officials.

Ireland has a strong relationship with Uganda, much of which is due to the support provided by Irish taxpayers for our development co-operation programme. However, it is also built on a proud missionary past. At the turn of the last century, an Irish Franciscan nun from County Wicklow had a major impact on Uganda. Mother Kevina had built up 90 institutions, including schools, clinics and hospitals, when she died. Many more have followed in this proud tradition, which has had a major impact on the country. Ugandans proudly speak about the good education and high-quality health care they received from Irish missionary institutions. This has positioned Ireland well to hold the Ugandan Government to account over this case and to help rebuild our relationship in the future. In the past few weeks, we have used our position to take the lead on donors affected by this fraud to impress upon the Government of Uganda in no uncertain terms the importance of taking swift action to respond to the findings of the Ugandan auditor general.

I assure the committee that we are committed to ensuring our support is used for the purposes intended, is directed to the poorest and most vulnerable in the countries where we are working and represents the best value for money for the Irish taxpayer. We are working urgently to have Irish funds restored and are putting significant pressure on the Ugandan authorities. The impact of the funding crisis has brought us to a crossroads in our long-standing relationship with Uganda and we must now reflect on how we move forward to ensure the money given by the Irish people is fully protected while still offering hope and assistance to the poor in northern Uganda.