The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Criminal Investigations Directorate-CID is investigating the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation-UPPC and Ministry of Local Government-MoLG over Shillings 500million that was meant for the supply of security stamps to LC I and LC II chairpersons.
According to highly placed sources at the CID headquarters, on August 26, 2020, the MoLG entered a contract number MoLG/SPLS/19-20/00115 with UPPC to supply 41,964 security stamps for LCI and LC II chairpersons. The contract details show that UPPC was to design and engrave each stamp at Shillings 45,000 bringing the total cost to Shillings 1.8 billion.
After developing the security features, UPPC subcontracted Crane Engravers Limited to produce the stamps. UPPC went ahead and delivered 30,829 stamps to MoLG leaving a balance of 11,135 stamps for unknown reasons. However, records received by the CID detectives show that despite the delivery of less than the agreed number of stamps, MoLG went ahead and paid UPPC the full contract amount.
“Our interest is to establish why MoLG went ahead to pay UPPC full amount even after learning that they had not delivered fully as per the contract. We suspect there was connivance, abuse of office or embezzlement of public money,” a detective said.
The 11,135 undelivered stamps when multiplied with Shillings 45,000 budgeted for each stamp, cost Shillings 501 million. CID spokesperson Charles Twine confirmed the ongoing investigations, saying they want to unravel circumstances under which UPPC earned money for incomplete work.
The Local Government Minister Raphael Magyezi has not yet commented on the matter as he neither picked nor returned calls from our reporter. Recently, CID indicted Prof Tom Davis Wasswa, the Managing Director of UPPC and other top officials for alleged embezzlement of Shillings 3 billion.
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