By Our Reporter
Kampala: The Inspector General of Government (IGG) Irene Mulyangonja is in hot soup after being dragged to the Judicial Service Commission over alleged lack of integrity.
This comes after a concerned Ugandan citizen petitioning the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) not to appoint Mulyagonja as judge of the Court of Appeal, because she allegedly lacks the integrity required of a candidate for that position.
Mulyagonja recently made it clear that she is no longer interested in the IGG job and even applied to be considered as judge of the Court of Appeal, a position she is competing for with other people. However, the petitioner, in his petition dated May 29th, 2019 sent to the Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission, contends that “The judiciary being an important arm of government and mandated to dispense justice without fear or favour, it should therefore be staffed with people of integrity,” says the petitioner in his May. The petitioner fears that if Justice Mulyagonja is appointed to that position, she will bring the judiciary into disrepute. “She has exhibited gross incompetence, high handedness, nepotism and other corrupt tendencies while executing her work as IGG,” says the petitioner.
The petitioner cites the case of Mark Kamanzi, the head of legal at National Drug Authority (NDA), who in May 2018 petitioned the IGG to investigate the wrongs at the drugs body but the IGG never acted. Kamanzi wanted IGG to investigate then MP Medard Bitekyerezo who was Chairperson of NDA board and then Executive Secretary Donna Kusemererwa over a number allegations. To date, the petitioner says, the IGG has never given any feedback about the investigations. He further alleges that in 2015, Ignatius Loyola Malungu, a teacher of Our Lady of Good Counsel SS, Gayaza, petitioned Mulyagonja’s office to investigate an alleged mismanagement of Shs145 million by the then headmistress, Mary Tereza Obbo, who spent that money on food and beverages in disregard of the PPDA Act which requires placement of advertisements inviting suppliers to bid. The petitioner states that Malungu was illegally transferred to Namutumba SS for raising accountability issues of the former school.
The petitioner further accuses Mulyagonja of not acting on a number corruption related cases even when they were reported to her office. One of those, he says, officials from the inspectorate of government engaged in corruption in the procurement of a contractor for the multibillion shillings tower to house the inspectorate’s headquarters in Kampala. The inspectorate’s internal procurement and disposal unit and contracts committee, according to the petitioner offered the contract to unqualified joint venture of Roko Construction and contractor-Roko Rwanda which did not meet bid conditions as established by PPDA team. He says Mulyagonja watched as her staff changed the conditions to suit the joint venture of Roko Construction and contractor-Roko Rwanda which even didn’t have Shs20 billion minimum cash on its bank account to prove its financial soundness as required by the bid document. The petitioner also alleges that Mulyagonja did not take any action when allegations some time back reached her desk that the Health Ministry had left out qualified people and instead recruited people without qualifications required as medical assistants. They were believed to be related to top officials in the health ministry. However, when contacted for a comment about the petition, Mulyagonja said it isn’t the first time such allegations are coming up. She said the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the appointing authority who is the President have their internal mechanism of verifying such allegations.
