The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Entebbe, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The State House Anti-Corruption Unit has picked up three Entebbe municipal council officials for alleged corruption. The suspects are Frank Ssekagiri, the Entebbe Municipal Community Development Officer, Sarah Monica Nabirye, the Acting Principal Education Officer, and Engineer Christine Nanfuka.
The trio was picked up on Tuesday under the supervision of Brig. General Henry Isoke, the head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit following an impromptu visit by the State Minister for Economic Monitoring, Peter Ogwang. The minister was accompanied by a team of officials from the National Building Review Board-NBRB, State House Anti-Corruption Unit, and police officers to inspect certain projects in the municipality.
Ssekagiri’s trouble started when he failed to explain the authenticity of the 36 Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations-SACCOs that registered to receive funds under the Emyooga project last year. Last August, Entebbe Municipality MP Michael Kakembo raised a concern at the municipality, saying that none of the 26 SACCOs that received money on their accounts had succeeded to withdraw it.
At the time, the Deputy Town Clerk of Entebbe Municipal Council, Aisha Kitenda noted that the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives had not issued the SACCOS certificates of compliance because their members were required to first save before accessing Emyooga funds. Ssekagiri is currently detained at Entebbe police station to assist in investigations relating to Emyooga, Youth Livelihood Program, and the Uganda Women Empowerment Program.
For Nabirye, the minister tasked her to account for the Shillings 30million she withdrew last year. In her response, Nabirye told the minister that she withdrew the money and bought jerseys and balls to facilitate sports activities for the 15 public primary schools in Entebbe. However, the minister rejected the explanation, saying sports activities were suspended last year as a preventive measure against COVID-19.
Nanfuka was arrested following her failure to produce drawings for Kitooro Taxi Park, Katabi-Busambaga road (0.8 kilometers), Moroto road, and the Shillings 751.8 million newly built structure housing Division A offices and the Public Library.
The new structure was constructed by Stone Construction Ltd from January 7th, 2020 to March 2021 when it was handed over to Entebbe Municipal Council. The initial project cost was Shillings 654.3 million. The project comprised two floors, the ground floor housing Division A offices, an Informational center, and Exhibition Hall.
The new structure comprises thirteen offices and ten toilets including facilities for the public library. However, on inspection, Ogwang noticed narrow staircases, cracks on the floors of the public library and exhibition hall floor, and substandard public toilets.
As a result, Ogwang and the National Building Review Board demanded drawings for comparison with the works on the ground such as measurements for the stairs to the public library, which are 1 meter instead of 1.2 meters as recommended by the board, size of the lockup shops at Kitooro Market, length and width of the roads and trenches among others.
The team also established that only 6 out of the 36 streetlights along Moroto road are working, which the Town Clerk Charles Magumba attributed to vandalism. Residents have welcomed the arrest of the three officials, saying they have been complaining about the poor state of the roads, dark and dirty streets, and failure to receive Emyooga funds.
Two members of Katabi Namate Restaurant Owners Emyooga Association are happy about Ssekagiri’s arrest, saying he failed to explain why their SACCO has not received Emyooga funds to date.
“Entebbe Municipal Council’s Certificate of Registration was issued on 30th October 2020 and will expire this October without us ever getting money. So what was the use of making us form SACCOs in the first place?” one resident asked. She declined to disclose her name for fear of being victimized by municipal council officials for speaking about their failure to access funds.
*****
URN
