Kampala — THE scrutiny of government funds must go beyond mere balancing of books of accounts and missing documents to value-for-money audits, East African MPs have resolved.

The members of the public accounts committees of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda also demanded that prosecution agencies should seize the assets of public servants who misuse public funds.

"This business of committees being tied in a room to check missing vouchers and documents should be something of the past. We have to travel and see whether what the money was spent on is value for cash," John Momose Cheyo, the chairman of the Tanzanian public accounts committee, said during a meeting in Entebbe last week.

He added that the only way East African governments could end economic dependence was by punishing people who steal public funds.

"We have concentrated too much on financial statements. We have not assisted our governments in the generation of internal revenue. We have to get hold of thieves. I am happy that for the Ugandan committee, a policeman is deployed at the doorway."

Margaret Kiboijana (Ibanda MP) said whereas Tanzanians admired Uganda, detectives being near the committee was not enough to enforce compliance. "Our mandate stops at handing over the suspects to the Police. What happens after that, we don't know. We can learn from Tanzania where high profile politicians implicated resign," Kiboijana noted.

Jack Sabiiti, who was vice-chairman of the committee in the seventh Parliament said for the House to enforce accountability, "there is need for MPs to erase fear and dominance of the Executive."

Mbalire Kasanya, the chief executive officer of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda, said the committees' audit reports should indicate whether good governance was exhibited or not. "The reports should indicate whether value for money was exhibited in the expenditures," he said.