By Andrew Irumba
Parliament was on Thursday afternoon engulfed in drama after the Executive Secretary of the Departed Asians’ Property Custodian Board George William Bizibu failed to produce a letter appointing him to that position.
Bizibu, who was appearing before the committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprise (COSASE), to explain his role in the sale of Departed Asians Property, made legislators almost choke on laughter after it emerged that he has no formal appointment letter as Executive Secretary of the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board.
The matter is being investigates by a COSASE subcommittee, which is investigating circumstances under which departed Asians properties that were fully compensated for by government ended up in hands of government officials, businessmen and companies.
Earlier on, legislators had tasked Finance Minister atia Kasajia to task to explain why Bizibu, who has had a difficult time explaining audit queries that have marred operations of the government agency, is working without a formal appointment as Executive Secretary of the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB).
“Mr Bizibu is in office illegally,” a legislator on COSASE said on Thursday, adding that “We need the Finance Minister to explain this anomaly.” However, Kasaija failed to explain the anomaly.
COSASE also found out that Kasaija doubles as both the DAPCB Board Chairman as well as the Finance Minister, something he admitted is unlawful . The Parliamentary inquiry started after the Board chaired by Kasaija claimed an unspecified amount of money was paid to undisclosed claimants for properties which were sold by the Custodian Board prior to receiving repossession claims by original owners. The MPs have since challenged the Custodian Board to publish a list of the beneficiaries to confirm whether they did not pay ghost claimants, something the DAPCB is not willing to do.
While appearing before COSASE last week, Bizibu admitted the accountability queries when questioned by MPs. During the interface with COSASE Bizibu, who has been running the show at the DAPCB for almost two years, said the Board does not have information about the current ownership of several plots despite the records indicating that they were compensated by the government.
However, the MPs accused Bizibu of trying to trying to cover up senior government officials accused of grabbing the Departed Asians’ properties.
In the same vein, the composition of the Board also became a matter public scrutiny. The Board members include Kasaija, Lands Minister Betty Amongi, Attorney General William Byaruhanga, State Minister for Local Government Jenifer Namuyangu, State Minister for Industry and Cooperatives, Michael Werikhe and Gen. Salim Saleh, who is a “co-opted member”.
However, COSASE also noted that although Section 5 (1) of the Assets of Departed Asians Act mandates the board to sit at least once every month, the Board has not met ins several years, which facilitated a lot of fraud at DAPCB, where hundreds of properties have since been stolen and dubiously sold to wealthy individuals. An Auditor General’s report has raised accountability queries at the Custodian Board such as theft of public funds through fictitious compensations of up to Shs1.7Bn, double allocation of properties, forged land titles, sale of assets without proper valuation, missing documents among other illegalities. The Auditor General inspected 139 properties in Jinja Municipal Council and found that the Board did appoint qualified professionals to value the properties.
There was also no complete list of tenants and properties. The AG also discovered cases of duplicated allocation of properties, abandoned properties, irregular disposal of properties, arrears of ground rent and unscrupulous property managers. He says these irregularities have resulted into the loss of government properties. Other properties in prime areas of Kampala that are in the records of DAPCB but dubiously acquired or registered in the names of other people include; Plot 20 Parliament Avenue; Plot 3 Market Street; Plots 6, 8, 10 and 12 Namirembe Road; Plot 14 A George Street; and Plot 7 Bombo road.
However, neither Bizibu, Kasaija nor any of the other Board members named above can explains how all this fraud happened under their noses.
