By Andrew Irumba
The State House Anti-Corruption Task-force that is headed by Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema is already showing results for a job well-done at ridding government of corrupt officials.
TheSpy Uganda has learnt that ever since the Task-force was put in place by president Yoweri Museveni and mandated to fight corruption in all government institutions, 93 persons have been charged in courts with corruption, courtesy of investigations undertaken by Col. Nakalema’s Task-force. We have established that the list suspects includes 82 public servants and 11 private individuals.
The list was made public by Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo today who stated thus; “So far, 93 people have been charged in courts of law on corruption related offences ranging from abuse of office, causing financial loss, conspiracy to defraud, corruption, diversion of public funds, embezzlement and impersonation. Of these, 82 are public officers who were accordingly interdicted while 11 are private individuals.”
Ofwono also noted that of the said 82 public officials, three are Bank of Uganda employees, nine are staff of Post Bank, 10 from MDAs (Ministry of lands, URA and DPP, 18 from commissions and statutory boards (Uganda Human Rights commission (UHRC), Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and National Gaming and Lotteries Board (NGLB). Ofwono said all the suspects have since been interdicted and strictly not allowed to be in office, so as to allow investigations about allegations levied against them go on smoothly.
One of those interdicted is the Executive Director National Gaming and Lotteries Board Edgar Agaba, who is on the charge sheet. Ofwono revealed that Agaba is not allowed to conduct any business on behalf of National Gaming and Lotteries Board and has since unveiled a letter signed by Patrick Ocilap on behalf of the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance which explains circumstances under which Agaba was interdicted.
“Mr Agaba is currently on interdiction following alleged financial impropriety. As a result, he is out of office and is a subject to a court process. He is therefore not obliged to conduct business or any other duty regarding operations of the Board until he is cleared,” reads the letter in part.
Ofwono also revealed that Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala returned Shs700m to State House Anti-corruption unit which Agaba had paid to organize a workshop at the Hotel yet he was not in office, in addition to persuading the Hotel to issue forged documents purporting that the workshop took place.
The government Spokesperson also revealed that “Others who have cases in courts of law and should not enter office include 22 district local Government staff from (Alebtong, Amolatar, Dokolo, Lira and Mbarara), 14 municipal and Town Council staff from (Totoro, Mbarara, Arua, Lira, Bugembe and Kasangati), one Tertiary education institution staff (principal Lira Agro Technical institute) and two security officers (police).”
He noted that the above officials hold the following Government positions; Accounting officers at PS level in UHRC and EOC, Chief Executive Officer in NGLB, Managing director in Post Bank, directors in Bank of Uganda, undersecretary, EOC, Chief finance officers in Mbarara, Alebtong, Lira, Dokolo and Lyantonde,
Mayor of Lira, Town Clerks in Tororo, Arua, Mbarara and Lira and principal of technical institute Lira.
It has been established that since December 10, 2018, the State House anti-corruption unit has received a
total of 58,415 complaints, 8022 of these cases have been concluded while 4017 are currently under investigation, 35,280 cases were referred to relevant ministries, departments and agencies for administrative management. These are non-corruption/ non-fraud related complaints or are corrupt related but are already under investigation by other agencies.
The cases under scrutiny relate to among others, land compensations, court delays, already under investigations by IGG or Police, welfare inquires, presidential pledges and disputes between private individuals. After referral, the anti-corruption unit continues to coordinate with relevant agencies to ensure that complaints are handled effectively and Whistleblowers protected, on top of being updated about the investigations.
Ofwono also revealed that the Anti-Corruption Task-force is investigating several Labour exporting companies over allegations that they defrauded over Shs140m from Ugandans under the guise of securing them visas, air tickets and other travel document after promising them lucrative jobs abroad especially in the Middle East, which they never delivered.
