Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has ordered for a forensic audit into the Shs500m gorilla permit fraud that occurred at Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) after the Auditor General reported that he was denied access to the chimpanzee and gorilla booking data during the audit process.

The Auditor General, John Muwanga, noted that although UWA reported to have collected Shs22.461bn as revenue from Gorilla and Chimpanzee tracking in 2022/23, but his request for data regarding financial transactions such as records of invoices, payment, and reconciliation to the system was denied, a decision he said limits his audit work into verifying the correctness of the said earned revenue.

The directive for the forensic audit was issued by Medard Lubega, Chairperson COSASE,  during the meeting held between the Committee and officials of UWA who had appeared to respond to a number of audit queries raised in the December 2023 Auditor General’s report.

“You know that is an audit ordered by the Minister and by standards when the Minister orders for an audit, that one goes to him. Now, we are also ordering for a forensic audit. We are also ordering a forensic in the same affairs,” said Lubega.