IGG: We are working hard to recover Katosi money

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Inspector General of Government Justice Irene Mulyagonja has revealed that her office is tracing the 24.7 billion Uganda shillings stolen from the Katosi road project and trying to recover it from the USA.

Mulyagonja told reporters at the closure of the five-day commonwealth anti-corruption heads of agencies in Africa meeting at Lake Victoria Serena on Friday evening that her office was aware part of the money was shipped to the USA.

Last August, Former works minister Abraham Byandala, who was among those accused of abuse of Katosi money, was acquitted by the Anti-Corruption Court of all charges.

Instead, businessman Apollo Ssenketo was found guilty of theft and then convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Ssenketo had represented a company called Eutaw Construction, a US firm that turned out to be fake, and had been contracted to construct the road in 2014.

Through the collaboration with the commonwealth partners, Uganda has managed to recover $217000 (819 million Uganda shillings) since 2016 that had been taken out of the country by thieves, according to Patricia Scotland, the secretary general of the secretariat.

The IGG said it was hard to recover some of the money because of the way thieves push to hide it in complicated structures in tax havens.

On the President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s claim that the Inspectorate of Government (IG) had been infiltrated by wrong elements and therefore why he appointed the state house anti-corruption unit, an official in the IGG’s office, who preferred not to be named, told URN it is not true and they prefer state house to give them information on this matter.

The official said “as the IG, we say give us information and we clean it if you insist we have been infiltrated.”

In their communique, the heads of anti-corruption agencies in Africa called for multi-agency team work in implementation of anti-corruption strategies.

They also requested governments in Europe, America and other jurisdictions to work towards speedy repatriation of recovered assets to African countries.

Corruptions usually take their loot to the global north where they hide in banks or buying properties.

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URN