KAMPALA, UGANDA — Rukiga County MP Patrick Kiconco Katabaazi has been appointed to the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Budget (PACOB) for the 2026–2029 period, placing him at the centre of discussions on how government resources should be prioritised and scrutinised.
But the appointment comes with an uncomfortable question: what happens when a politician joining a committee charged with advising on public finances has previously faced parliamentary scrutiny over billions of shillings in public money handled by his law firm?
PACOB is expected to advise on budget priorities, fiscal discipline and the alignment of public resources with national development priorities. The committee has also been tasked with scrutinising proposed government spending and identifying priorities within the available resource envelope.
Katabaazi’s appointment therefore places his record on public money under a fresh spotlight.
The Shs39 billion question
In 2023, Katabaazi, then a partner at Pathways Advocates, was summoned by Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) over Shs39 billion that NAADS had advanced to the law firm in connection with compensation for tea nursery operators.
The Auditor General’s findings had raised questions about whether the intended beneficiaries had received the money. During the COSASE proceedings, MPs demanded documentation showing how the funds had been distributed.
The matter became particularly contentious after MPs examined individual beneficiary accounts and questioned discrepancies between amounts reportedly paid and amounts appearing in some beneficiaries’ accounts.
Katabaazi maintained that the payments and deductions were connected to legal and administrative arrangements with the beneficiaries. However, COSASE questioned whether sufficient documentation had been provided to justify the deductions.
The parliamentary dispute did not simply disappear.
A later court record shows that Parliament’s final resolution recommended that the Inspectorate of Government investigate Katabaazi with a view to recovering money to tea nursery bed operators.
Then came 2026
The controversy returned to the public domain this year after President Yoweri Museveni raised concerns over alleged deductions from compensation paid to tea nursery operators and referred to Pathways Advocates in a February 2026 letter to the then Attorney General. Those allegations remain contested.
The former Attorney General’s office subsequently said the legal representatives and operators’ leadership had denied allegations of 30% deductions during an April 2026 meeting, while some beneficiaries later made fresh allegations of deductions.
That means the dispute has competing accounts and remains a matter requiring verification rather than a settled finding that Katabaazi personally stole farmers’ money.
From the courtroom to the budget table
The timing of Katabaazi’s PACOB appointment makes the development particularly significant.
The same political system now expects him to participate in conversations about fiscal discipline, public expenditure, budget priorities and value for money—areas that are central to PACOB’s mandate.
And that creates a legitimate public-interest question:
Can Katabaazi’s experience in the tea compensation controversy become part of the scrutiny expected of PACOB members, or will his new appointment simply move the conversation on?
For Katabaazi, the appointment is undoubtedly a bigger national platform. But it also places his own financial-record controversies under a much brighter light.
PACOB will be watching Uganda’s money. Many Ugandans will now be watching PACOB—and Katabaazi’s role in it.
