By Spy Uganda
State House Entebbe: President Museveni has sacked the jailed Permanent Secretary Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Geraldine Ssali and replaced her with the former Ministry of Education P.S, Alex Kakooza.
Kakooza, a former PS at the Ministry of Education, arrives from the Office of the Vice-President where he has been a principal private secretary.
This move comes days after Ssali was arrested and charged on July 18, 2024, after reportedly causing government financial loss and conniving with some members of Parliament to embezzle cooperative funds and is currently on remand with MPs Micheal Mawanda, Ignatius Wamakuyu, and Paul Akamba. Others at the university of understanding include lawyer Julius Kirya Taitankonko and Leonard Kavundira, the principle co-operative officer at the Trade ministry.
The prosecution alleges that Ms Ssali, during the financial year 2021/ 2022 and 2022/ 2023, introduced Buyaka Growers Co-operative Society among those to be compensated by the government for the war loss yet it had not been listed for a supplementary budget of August 2021.
That Ssali in further performance of her duties, made irregular payments to a tune of Shs3.868 billion to Kirya and Company Advocates, a law firm belonging to co-suspect lawyer Julius Kirya Taitankonko, under the guise of compensating war victims of Buyaka Growers well knowing that her actions will cause government a financial loss because the said payment was in contravention of the Treasury instructions of 2017.
HE Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has since vowed that by the time ”we run out of space in Luzira, people will have lost appetite for corruption. The battle against corruption is more achievable and is not as tough as it seems.”
Museveni, who is expected to be the vanguard of rule of law and democracy, would be expected to wait for court ruling for him to be to sack Ssali or to retain her, depending on the direction of the court ruling. He has however not waited for that long process, a lawyer told our Spy on Friday via telephone.
Watch Museveni’s Video Below In An X Post
Fighting corruption is not as difficult as people may think. By the time we run out of space in Luzira, people will have lost appetite for corruption.
The battle against corruption is more achievable and is not as tough as it seems. Soon, we'll go after those involved, and I'll… pic.twitter.com/eqneBkmens
— Criminal Investigations Directorate-UPF (@CID1_UG) January 26, 2024
According to the President, the current problem of corruption in the country is mainly being spearheaded by the Permanent Secretaries, Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs), Town Clerks and Gombolola Chiefs.
“These are the four people in Uganda who are in charge of government money, personnel, jobs and procurement. So, the corruption which is happening is because of these four and unfortunately, they have let themselves down but we are here. I have your support and that of the freedom fighters and the victims are also there so the three of us, we are going to crush the corrupt,” he says.
