NWOYA– The majority of the cooperatives in Nwoya district lack proper audited books of account, something that has limited them to access loans from commercial banks and other financial institutions, district officials say.
According to experts, a financial audit is an objective examination and evaluation of the financial statements of an organisation to make sure that the financial records are a fair and accurate representation of the transactions they claim to represent.
In Uganda, institutional financial audits are carried out by fully certified bodies or persons sanctioned by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda as provided for by the Cooperative Societies Act as amended in 2020.
The district commercial officer Nwoya, Kenneth Kitara, says he has in several engagements with the cooperatives’ managers, urged them to have their books of account audited but that some have challenges in carrying out the exercise.
“They have disclosed to us the challenges and it is on this ground that we are now helping them to get on the right track so that in case they need financial support they have proper financial records to present to the lenders,’’ he said.
“Many [cooperatives] have been shunned by financial institutions when they needed loans to boast their enterprises,” he revealed
He added that there are those cooperatives that seem to be on the right track but they also lack technical people in their executive for better presentation when the need arises.
To him, there are several cooperatives that have missed out on both government and partnership support simply because their books of account are not up-to-date.
The manager West Acholi Cooperative Union, Bob Ogen says they have always sensitised the primary cooperatives on the benefits of record keeping and audit but some members do the contrary.
Ogen advised them on the benefits of having audit books of account since it’s a basis for accountability to the members and also a key resource for lobbying.
The primary objective of an audit of the books is to validate the financial information management provides. Lenders and insurance agents typically offer more favorable terms to companies with audited financial statements and a clean audit opinion.
https://thecooperator.news/police-sacco-fails-to-account-for-shs-5billion-faces-forensic-audit/
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