UGANDA; POLICE TO QUIZ OPM STAFF OVER CASH USE

Officials of the Prime Minister’s office Beatrice Kezabu (R), Geofrey Kazinda (C), Hussein Katumwa (2nd L) and John Martin Owol (L) at the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo yesterday. The four were remanded to Luzira Prison without being charged. They re-appear in court today.

Police plan to question several staff at the Office of the Prime Minister implicated in depositing more than Shs15.7 billion meant for official work on personal accounts.

An MP has meanwhile written to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, asking that OPM Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimana be summoned to explain how he failed to detect alleged fraud by his subordinates.

CID director Grace Akullo said yesterday that they will begin interrogating dozens of affected OPM officials next week as the Force broadens its ongoing investigations into alleged “fraud” there. “We want to know accountabilities for the monies; what activities were done, at what cost and where?” she told this newspaper by telephone.

The developments came to light shortly after the Anti-Corruption Court sent the interdicted OPM principal accountant, Mr Geoffrey Kazinda, and three of his colleagues to Luzira Prisons for remand without being charged. The quartet returns to court today for formal indictment. Prosecution has preferred 168 counts of fraud against Mr Kazinda.

Mr Bigirimana told this newspaper that he had assumed that Mr Kazinda was an “honest man”, but later discovered that the principal accountant submitted different amounts of cash on requisition papers and inflated the figures online before he validated the requests.

“Mr Kazinda betrayed the trust of government. My action [to report him to police] was to send a message to everyone in government to stop corrupt practices,” he said. “Irrespective of blackmail, and attempts by some people to divert us, I am not going to give up.”

Daily Monitor on Tuesday broke the story of a practice at the Prime Minister’s office of payments for end-users in government activities being routed through individual bank accounts of under-secretaries and commissioners.

Auditor General John Muwanga said he was shocked by the substantial cash advanced to bureaucrats for official work, which he had not detected in previous audits, and officials involved have to explain under what law or guidelines they acted.

Mr Kassiano Wadri, the chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, said there was no justification for channelling huge amounts of government cash through individuals because account holders hold the discretion over how to use money on their personal bank accounts.

“That’s complete abuse of financial regulations; it’s open theft,” he said, “Why would someone pass public money through personal accounts in this era of Electronic Fund Transfers (ETF)? This can be a recipe diversion of money.”

Whereas there is no evidence, as of yet, that recipients misused monies they received in the 2010/11 Financial Years, Anti-Corruption Coalition-Uganda’s executive director Cissy Kagaba said a lack of adherence to established financial management and accounting procedures in government offer bureaucrats loopholes that they could exploit for personal advantage.