By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: State Minister for Privatization Evelyn Anite is in hot soup after a Whistle-blower petitioned the Inspector General of Government (IGG) to investigate her interest in Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL).
According to the petition dated August 9, 2019, signed ANONYMOUS, which was received by the IGG on August 14th, the Whistleblower alleges that Anite is involved in influence peddling in matters regarding UTL, abuse of office, challenging a cabinet decision among other allegations.
The Whistle-blower in their the Petition titled INFLUENCE PEDDLING, ABUSE OF OFFICE AND FRAUDIN RELATION TO ADMINISTRATION OF UGANDA TELECOM LIMITED BY HONOURABLE EVELYN ANITE-MINISTER FOR FINANCE, PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (PRIVATISAION AND INVESTMENT) AND MP FOR KOBOKO MUNICIPALITY, alleges that minister Anite in involved in secret dealings with Mauritius Telecom Limited with intent to help them acquire UTL at a paltry USD 45M, yet Cabinet had passed a resolution to sell UTL to Teleology Technology Limited, which was offering USD70M.
It is also in the petition which was copied to the Speaker of Parliament, Attorney General and the Prime Minister that the reason why Anite fell out with Twebaze Bemanya, the UTL administrator, was because he was in favour of the Cabinet resolution of selling UTL to Teleogy Technologies Limited, yet the Minister is in favour of Mauritius Telecom LTD.
It is also alleged by the Whistleblower in the Petition that while on her study trip in the USA a few days back Anite flew to Mauritius, where she met the Telecom officials there to discuss more about the deal, although she did not inform the Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, yet protocol requires her to do so.
The Whistle-blower thus wants the IGG to investigate Anite’s secret mission and sojourn from USA to Mauritius via France and what she discussed with the people she met there. The Whistleblower wants among others things the IGG to probe;
Why Anite’s trip to Mauritius was secretly booked and not part of her initial booking to USA, who paid for her trip to and from Mauritius, which of her two passports (Gov’t and Diplomatic) did she use to travel to Mauritius, why she did not declare her intended destination to the Prime Minister, as required by standing orders.
They also want the IGG to investigate her personal interest and why she continued handling official duties on leave including writing and signing letters pertaining to UTL matters even when she had left Hon. David Bahati to handle her official duties.
She is also to be probed on allegations that she often leaks official government correspondences on social media using her phone number 256782633131.
However, our efforts to reach Anite for a comment about these allegations were futile because her phone numbers couldn’t go through.
