By Nick Mann | 19 November 2012

The UK has frozen all direct financial aid to the Ugandan government due to concerns over the potential ‘misuse’ of funds intended for development projects.

This follows suspension of aid payments to the office of the Ugandan prime minister in August, following allegations of fraud in an investigation by Uganda’s auditor general.

Aid worth £11.1m has been frozen out of the £26.9m total due this financial year.

A spokesman for the UK Department for International Development said the decision was taken after the ‘initial evidence’ from a detailed forensic audit, launched following the August suspension, ‘indicates aid money may have been misused’.  

He added: ‘We are extremely concerned by these preliminary findings and we will assess the decision further when we have considered the full findings of the report.

‘Unless the government of Uganda can show that UK taxpayers' money is going towards helping the poorest people lift themselves out of poverty, this aid will remain frozen and we will expect repayment and administrative and criminal sanctions.’

The department stressed that the forensic audit had raised questions about a ‘small proportion’ of the total amount the UK planned to spend through the Ugandan government and there had been no confirmed loss to UK taxpayers at this stage of the continuing investigation.

Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark have already suspended aid to the Ugandan government after Uganda’s auditor general significant found financial mismanagement by the Office of the Prime Minister in relation to a post-conflict reconstruction programme.