Kampala — SEVERAL district administrative officers (CAOs) have failed to account for over sh11b.

The money was advanced by the Ministry of Finance to clear teachers' salary arrears during the 2002 to 2007 financial years.

The parliamentary public accounts committee on Thursday asked the Auditor General, John Muwanga, to explain the arrears for each district.

"This is a lot of money. How can the CAOs fail to account for the money for over five years?" the committee vice-chairman, Ssebuliba Mutumba, asked.

The Auditor General, in his financial reports to the Parliament, said some payrolls did not show that salaries were paid.

He added that some payments were doubtful and others were under the category 'others', which was not explained.

Kiboga, Soroti, Iganga, and Kotido districts had overpaid their teachers by sh31m.

The reports said out of sh6.6b advanced for the year 2002/3, about sh700m had been paid to 'others'.

In 2003/4, a total of sh7b was advanced to the CAOs, but only sh523m was accounted for.

In 2004/5, the ministry advanced sh7b. A total of sh1.1b had never been accounted for.

For the financial year 2005/6, the ministry also advanced sh7b to clear the salaries arrears, but only sh5.2b was accounted for.

In 2006/7, the ministry again advanced sh3b, but a total of sh406m was never accounted for.

The ministry in 2006/7 advanced to the districts sh4.7b. A total of sh2b is yet to be accounted for.

Iganga district CAO Yigga Mukasa asked for more time to account for over sh300m.