THE IGG SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO SEE RECOVERY OF STOLEN FUNDS

IGG charges 100 officials over funds
Friday, 3rd June, 2011
By vision reporter

THE Inspector General of Government (IGG), Raphael Baku, has lined up over 100 public officials for prosecution over offences including abuse of office, causing financial loss and receiving bribes.
Others are illicit enrichment, false claim, forgery and uttering false documents.
Bukenya is the most prominent among those in the lineup. He is facing charges related to the expenditure of the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
Last week the Kololo-based anti-corruption court issued him with criminal summons.
Others on the list are: Onegi Obel, the former chairman Board of Directors of NSSF; Damian Akankwasa, former head of the National Forest Authority (NFA) and David Nestor Machumbi, a principal accountant in Public Service ministry.
Former health ministers Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, Dr. Alex Kamugisha and Capt. Mike Mukula are still on the list. Also on the list are Godfrey Ntale, a personal assistant to the vice-chairman of the Democratic Party; Naboth Twine, former headteacher at Kitamba Primary School; John Rubabanza, deputy DISO of Mpigi and Syson Kekuruso, a city lawyer.
The IGG’s spokesperson Ali Munira said those on the list have been investigated thoroughly and their names forwarded to court. She said most of the officials on the list allegedly committed the offenses in the previous years.
According to the report issued to the Speaker of Parliament on April 13, many of the cases being prosecuted by the IGG came from the district administrations.
Between July and December, the IGG received 181 complaints from the districts, accounting for 17.4% of the total complaints which the office received.
Most of them were related to embezzlement, mishandling of tenders and misappropriation of public funds.
Complaints against individual public officials were 115 and they ranked second. Other offenses being prosecuted came from school authorities and the district service commissions.
The most common titles on the list are chief administrative officers, district financial officers, accountants, town clerks, district education officers and sub-county chiefs.
Between January and May 2011, the IGG prosecuted and concluded 12 cases. Among them was that the former Managing Director of NSSF, David Chandi Jamwa, who was convicted of causing a financial loss to NSSF funds and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Emmanuel Matovu, a former prison’s commander in Mukono district, was also convicted of causing a financial loss and false accountability of sh2.7m in the same period and given a three-year-jail term.
The suspects who pleaded guilty to the offences before consuming court’s time and the tax payers’ money were sentenced to fines or had their cases withdrawn. Those who denied the cases and were later convicted got long jail sentences.
Despite the efforts of the IGG, corruption continues to hit Uganda’s institutions. Over the last one year, President Yoweri Museveni has repeatedly said his government would ruthlessly deal with public officials found guilty of corruption.
He has also said public officials will in future work on contract so that those with corrupt tendencies do not get their contracts renewed.
In executing his work, the IGG noted, in the report, that he faces a lot of challenges, which include understaffing, underfunding, poor record keeping in some government institutions and inadequate support and good will from other government institutions.