Karenga district NUSAF III desk officer arrested

Karenga, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Karenga District Northern Uganda Social Action Fund- NUSAF desk officer, Patrick Lotyang Ogwang has been arrested for allegedly embezzling more than 70 million Shillings. The money was meant for two NUSAF projects.

Lotyang is being investigated following a probe on how he spent NUSAF III funds meant for stone pitching of Karenga police road and establishment of a grain mill for a farmers’ group. The stone pitching project was to cost 57.6 million shillings while the Lokiito Grain Millers Association  was valued at about 21 million shillings.

According to investigations, stone pitching on police road was supposed to be completed in February this year, but no work was done at all, while the mill that was delivered to the beneficiaries was sub-standard.

Michael Ngole, an officer familiar with the investigations says that the arrest of Ogwang follows a team from the Inspectorate of Government-IG which arrived in Karenga on Monday to investigate allegations of embezzlement of Nusaf funds.

According to Ngole, the team from the IG established that all the money allocated to the two projects has been spent. For example, out of the 57 Million Shillings for the stone pitching project, only 1,700 Shillings is left on the account. On the other hand, only 173,000 is still in the group account for a milling machine.

Since the 2016/17 financial year, districts in the Karamoja region have received more than 50 Billion Shillings for the Nusaf program, but much of it was diverted by officials who connive with the political and technical personnel to defraud the government.

In September, five people in Abim district were remanded for allegedly causing government financial loss and embezzlement through the creation of ghost NUSAF projects.

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