The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala has remanded another official from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on charges of conspiring with eight others to cause the government a financial loss through the manipulation of payment systems.
On Tuesday, the Court presided over by Chief Magistrate Rachael Nakyazze charged Pedison Twesigomwe, the Assistant Commissioner Accounts who handed himself to court, following an earlier criminal summons issued to him through a local newspaper requiring him to attend court and take the plea.
Twesigomwe has now been added to the list of other officials who have spent almost two weeks in prison on remand.
They are: the Accountant General in the Ministry of Finance, Lawrence Ssemakula, the acting director of Treasury Services and Asset Management, Jennifer Muhuruzi, Tonny Yawe, a senior IT officer; and Paul Nkalubo Lumala, a systems IT officer; Deborah Dorothy Kusiima, a senior accountant in the Treasury Services Department.
Others are: Judith Ashaba, an accountant; Bettina Nayebare, a research assistant; and Mark Kasiiku, 33, an IT systems officer.
The prosecution’s case is that Ssemakula the Accountant General and Jennifer Muhuruzi; the Commissioner of Treasury services both being employed in the Ministry of Finance neglected to put in place measures to safeguard public funds hence resulting in a 652,588.2 US Dollars loss to the Government of Uganda.
Further, the prosecution states that Tonny Yawe; the senior IT officer in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development manipulated the payment instruction files from International Development Association-Washington; the intended payee of 652,588.2 US Dollars to Road-way Company Ltd -Poland purporting it was payment for recycling plant systems and Machinery; well knowing such an act would cause loss to the Government.
Twesigomwe has been charged with being accomplices to the commission of corruption whose intended purpose prosecution claims was to gainfully and illicitly enrich Road-Way Company .
Earlier, State Attorney Richard Birivumbuka informed the Court that on February 6th 2025, criminal summons were issued against Twesigomwe saying by that time, he was on the run because he was summoned by police and his known phones were off.
Birivumbuka noted that Twesigomwe disappeared from his home an act that invaded the criminal justice and it was on that premises that they asked for criminal summons and put them in the media.
He told the Court that he wanted to be put on record as to how Twesigomwe appeared because it is not of his involution.
Twesigomwe ‘s lawyers led by Richard Oine said following the insurance of the summons, they were received by RMacky and Company Advocates and were received on Feb 12th 2025 and passed over to him and that he is a law-abiding citizen who showed up in court to answer the summons given to him.
Birivumbuka noted that investigations in this matter are still ongoing and as such. sought for an adjournment and further remand for the accused persons.
Oine also asked the Prosecution to inform them as to when the investigations will be concluded.
The Court has been given the state six months to conclude investigations. He was further remanded until March 4th 2025.
Nakyazze informed the accused that she does not have the jurisdiction to entertain their plea as they will do so before a judge in the High Court who will also hear their bail.
The group is facing 11 counts including corruption, causing Financial Loss, Electronic Fraud and Money Laundering.
According to the Police’s preliminary investigations, money mysteriously disappeared from BOU in September 2024 and ended up in foreign accounts in The United Kingdom (UK) and Asian countries such as Japan.
Since then, the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) in collaboration with Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS) formerly Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) has been interrogating various individuals from BOU, the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General. BoU money heist was first described as a hacker’s handwork which was later disproved by CID’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Once CID discovered that it was not hacking but a well-orchestrated fraudulent payment, President Yoweri Museveni directed DIS to join the probe.
By the end of 2024, at least 21 staff at BOU, the Ministry of Finance and the accountant general had been interrogated, and their electronic gadgets including mobile phones and laptops had been confiscated and subjected to examination.
URN through interaction with various sources discovered that out of the 60 billion shillings, BOU was able to recover more than half of it through engaging UK banks. However, BOU was unable to succeed in recovering money that ended in Asian countries.
There is also a probe clue that the money that is said to have ended in Asian countries was actually withdrawn and clandestinely returned to Ugandan beneficiaries in cash or items procured for them.
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URN
