The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Phony suppliers
In the report, a review of 23 companies that supplied food for disaster stricken communities shows that they were overpaid by Shs 8.6 billion.
In addition, the registration papers of a number of them were questionable and irregular. The audit appears to put the former Principal Accountant, Kazinda, who is already on remand at Luzira Prisons, into hotter water.
Further scrutiny showed that while the PS had the responsibility of approving invoices, this was irregularly assigned to Kazinda by one of the database administrators, Chris Lubega, on Feb.1, 2011. Subsequently, a total of Shs 16.2 billion was approved by the Principal Accountant and paid to various individuals and organisations.
Also, an audit of payments over two years revealed that Shs 34.6 billion was transferred to personal accounts of OPM staff for undertaking Ministry activities without following the regulations.
It was noted that transfers onto personal accounts was authorised by the Accounting officer, Pius Bigirimana, vide an internal memo to the Principal Accountant dated May 21, 2010. However, not even one accountability document was available. For more than half of this money, there was no evidence that it had been accounted for.
In one shocking finding, Shs 3 billion was advanced to the personal accounts of two cashiers – Boniface Obbo and Isaiah Oonyu, yet they are not officers who are mandated to carry out field activities.
Shocking deals
In another bizarre finding, Shs 767 million was purportedly remitted to personal accounts “in error” and therefore was recalled by accounts. The recipients reportedly withdrew the funds from their accounts and refunded it to accounts staff in cash but the proof is nowhere to be seen.
The probe has also sucked in Centenary Bank, which received Shs 1.7 billion disguised as “Kasiimo for Luweero Veterans” (Funds for Luweero war veterans). But the auditors failed to get a bank statement to establish the beneficiaries of the money.
Another Shs 8bn was paid to 23 companies to supply food. It was noted that there was a particular individual who was a shareholder and director in four of the companies that supplied food, namely; MJZ Enterprises Ltd (1999), Mbalaba Enterprises Ltd (2007) Bimala Enterprises Ltd (1999) and ASB Enterprises (1999). Some of the above companies have no registered addresses with the registrar of Companies. These include Maliaka, MJZ, Katikamu, Mbalaba, Bimala, Kapitol, Rural Enterprises and Khadali.
The level of fraud involving fuel was also mind-boggling. For instance, Shs 6.85 billion was paid to New Caltex Ntinda in two years. However, according to the manager’s admission, on a numbers of occasions the money would be withdrawn in lump sum by the OPM officials as soon as it was deposited on the station’s account.
AG recommends
The recommendation of the AG on this issue is unequivocal.
“Investigations should be extended to the private companies, staff personal accounts, districts and banks, with a view of recovering the funds and prosecuting staff involved,” the report recommends.
Ugandans should therefore brace for an unprecedented investigation by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee and other anti-corruption bodies. The number of officials – and not just in the OPM – who could face the Anti-Corruption Court over this scam is not easy to estimate.
The Independent has learned from sources close to the audit but preferred anonymity that the Auditor General held an exit meeting with the various offices involved to chart a way forward.
At the meeting, there was consensus that those found responsible should not only be punished but every attempt should be made to recover the money. Also, it was agreed that the OPM scam was just an eye-opener and a mirror of what could be going on in other ministries, according to the source. “How it would be handled could lead to a far-reaching examination and overhaul of the current financial management system, which is obviously too prone to abuse by the various offices,” the source said.
While appearing before the Presidential Affairs Committee, Bigirimana, who first raised the red flag on Kazinda, said Kazinda’s multibillion mansion in Bukoto was “a factory of forged documents” including blank withdraw forms with the PS’s signature already appended on them.
However, the Auditor General also had few kind words for Bigirimana who he accused of “failure to secure the accounting documents of the OPM” and failing to execute his responsibility properly.
The OPM is heavily funded by donors who include the government of Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, European Union, USAID among others. Sources said the government was desperate to see how they would react to this latest scam. This is because some of the donors have in the past cut funding to the country in response to blatant corruption.
Graft in Uganda continues to be a key concern as it said to undermine good governance, socio-economic development and service delivery. Not only does it increase the cost of public service delivery and implementation of public projects, but it also has the potential to lead to political instability. It was because of these concerns that a stringent legal framework to fight the vice was formulated.
On paper, Uganda is said to have some of the best laws and policies to fight corruption. The public finance controls and procedures were revised in 2003 to make them “foolproof.” The problem though, according to corruption watchdogs, is on the implementation. Ugandans will therefore find it absolutely disgusting that officials in the various institutions such as Accountant General, BoU and ministries continue to conspire to beat the systems and controls in place to steal public funds at the expense of millions of poor people.
Apart from Kazinda, who is on remand at Luzira, forensic police led by CID Director Grace Akullo have swooped on the OPM and interrogated various officers.
Others lined up for questioning are Sansa Mugenyi, the commissioner for policy implementation and coordination, Vincent Waboya, the principal disaster preparedness officer for northern Uganda, Abdul Muwanika, the principal economist for monitoring and evaluation, Johnson Owaro, the technical adviser on agricultural matters for Karamoja Region, and Raphael Lubega, the Assistant Secretary in the department of Pacification and Development. Others are Cyprian Dhikusoka, the disaster management officer, Benon Kigenyi, the principal Assistant Secretary for Northern Uganda, and Richard Owiny, a senior personal assistant.
