The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | The Directorate of Public Prosecutions has informed the Anti Corruption Court Magistrate that investigations into charges of causing the government a 60 billion shillings financial loss through manipulation of Finance Ministry and Bank of Uganda payments systems are incomplete.
Prosecutor Richard Birivumbuka on Tuesday told the Chief Magistrate Rachael Nakyazze that he still needed more time within which to finalize the investigations in which nine people are jointly charged with conniving in the fraud that occurred in late 2024.
The suspects are the Accountant General in the Ministry of Finance, Lawrence Ssemakula, the acting director of Treasury Services and Asset Management, Jennifer Muhuruzi, Paul Nkalubo Lumala, a systems IT officer, Deborah Dorothy Kusiima, and a senior accountant in the Treasury Services Department.
Others are: Judith Ashaba, an accountant; Bettina Nayebare, a research assistant. They were given bail by the head of the Anti Corruption Court, Judge Lawrence Gidudu.
The group is jointly charged with Mark Kasiiku, an IT Systems Officer, IT Senior Officer Tonny Yawe and Pedison Twesigomwe, the Assistant Commissioner Accounts in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, who are still on remand.
Their case had come up for mention for the Prosecution to update the Magistrates Court on the progress of investigations in this matter before the case can be committed to the High Court, which has jurisdiction to try them.
The matter was adjourned to March 19th 2025, for another mention.
The Prosecution alleges 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 is charged with being an accomplice to the commission of corruption, whose intended purpose prosecution claims was to gainfully and illicitly enrich Road -Way Company.
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. The 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 the money that ended up 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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