Lamwo district DRDIP desk officer arrested over corruption

Lamwo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Inspectorate of Government has arrested three people including Anthony Aluku, the Lamwo district desk officer for the Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP) for alleged corruption and financial impropriety.

He was picked up alongside Charles Mutuwa and Moses Kadobera, both officials from Epicenter Africa that was contracted to install solar lighting in Padibe and Lamwo town councils, and Agoro and Awenolwiyo trading centres.

Some of the suspects were picked by a team of detectives from the Inspectorate of Government and police during a field trip on Monday and Tuesday to ascertain the value for money in the implementation of the projects. Also on the wanted list is the Lamwo district commercial officer, Joseph Dactus Ogik.

The Deputy Inspector General Government, Dr. Patricia Achan Okiria, says that their visit to Lamwo district followed a complaint lodged by the Resident District Commissioner, over suspicions that corruption marred the implementation of the project.

According to Achan, upon receipt of the complaint, they dispatched a team of detectives from the Inspectorate of Government to the district last month, which unearthed corruption.

Lamwo Resident District Commissioner, James Nabinson Kidega, says that they discovered that the contractor had inflated the figures for procuring the solar lighting units through connivance with technocrats with intent to defraud the government of public funds and execute shoddy work.

According to Kidega, each solar unit costs only Shillings 670,000 in the open market but the contractor quoted Shillings 4.7million. He says that the company also installed 16 solar units in Padibe town council instead of 20 units and only 8 units instead of 16 in Awenolwiy and Agoro trading center and Lamwo town Council.

The Lamwo LC V chairperson, Sisto Santo Oyet says that they have been impressed with the infrastructural development component but other areas such as livelihood, clean energy, and environmental components have challenges.

The Director of DRDIP in the office of the Prime Minister, Dr. Robert Limlim, says that as part of their intervention to salvage the government from losing colossal sums, they have decided to suspend the contracts of some implementing partners who have been implicated in dubious dealings.

Dr. Limlim says since the project’s inception in 2018, they have so far disbursed Shillings 21 Billion for the implementation of the DRDIP in Lamwo district, which shouldn’t go to waste.

According to Dr. Limlim, the implementation of the project has been marred with the delayed transfer of funds to the project beneficiaries, inefficiency by the implementation support team at the district and sub county level, and laxity towards vigorous monitoring of the project by the technical staff.

Lamwo Chief Administrative Officer, Alex Majeme says that the DRDIP’s objective and guidelines are well documented although he acknowledged the challenges in implementation that need to be addressed.

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