Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his support in this matter. It is important to remember that the misappropriation of funds was discovered by the Auditor General of Uganda. We take reassurance from this because our aid programme has been working to support institutions such as the Office of the Auditor General of Uganda. Therefore, the system worked. Second, we should remember that not only Irish aid moneys were involved. Aid moneys from Norway, Denmark and Sweden was also misappropriated. I also understand some Ugandan moneys were misappropriated. The misappropriation occurred in the case of moneys channelled through the Prime Minister's office. As soon as we had received the report of the Auditor General of Uganda and become aware of the misappropriation, we acted on the report. We suspended all aid channelled through the Ugandan Government and it remains suspended. We sent our audit and evaluation team which has now made its report to us. We sent the director general of Irish Aid who, together with our ambassador in Kampala, went to see all of the senior people in Uganda. We have now received a written commitment from the Ugandan Government that the aid which was misappropriated will be reimbursed in full. All of this has taken place within a very short period. This is Irish taxpayer's money and taxpayers can be reassured that the system of the Auditor General of Uganda worked and that our audit and evaluation system has also worked. We acted on the report immediately and the money is to be reimbursed. In the meantime, aid moneys for Uganda will remain suspended. When the audit and evaluation team's report, now with the Secretary General of my Department, comes to me, I will make it available and deal with the issue in an open way.

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