By Mulengera Reporters
At the instigation of National Council for Sport (NCS)’s General Secretary Dr. Bernard Patrick Ogwel (PhD), the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) is considering inquiring into extortionist activities of a group operating as Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GACI). They describe themselves as a civil society organization dedicated to fighting corruption in public entities.
As such, they have always targeted public institutions’ heads and accounting officers. Dr. Ogwel, who isn’t even the accounting officer at NCS, is just one of the many who have been menaced by GACI’s controversial activities. Each time the Auditor General’s report (which is public information) comes out for the preceding financial year (FY), they get hold of it and interpret it in their own way.
Claiming to be paraphrasing and quoting that AG’s report, GACI officials always come up with their own dossiers purporting to be blowing the whistle to expose graft at several GoU agencies. This is targeted at making the targeted accounting officers sleepless and many end up being disrupted from their primary service delivery agenda.
In their 4th August letter, which they widely circulated, GACI officials uttered several defamatory statements targeting the top NCS officials while claiming to be communicating contents of the AG’s report, which only MPs are mandated to act upon under the accountability committees like COSASE and PAC.
Sick and tired of their blackmail and malicious activities, Dr. Ogwel has since instructed a law firm to take them on for both civil and criminal defamation. This story will focus on the criminal defamation part while dedicating another article for the tortious civil defamation part.
Dr. Ogwel’s lawyers have penned a formal complaint to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) head Gen Henry Isoke. Dated 8th August, the complaint enumerates instances of deliberate and wilful misrepresentation and malicious defamation which GACI officials have been committing against Dr. Ogwel and other NCS officials. That the statements disclosed in the GACI letters are full of malicious, false, misleading and defamatory utterances which are actionable in law.
Ogwel makes it clear he is sick and tired of endless defamation by GACI whose officials keep claiming they are enforcing accountability and oversight work as a CSO. He takes strong exception to GACI’s decision to misrepresent what the AG states in his latest report (for 2024) regarding the $44,100 which is supposed to be recovered from Hill Top Hotel in Kigali. The money had been expended for accommodation for Uganda delegation members during the EAC games in Kigali and in his report, the AG recommends that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) undertakes diplomatic efforts to have the money recovered from the Kigali hotel.
Yet in their letter, GACI officials stated that the NCS bosses had caused financial loss and acted fraudulently by refusing to pursue recovery of this money, which isn’t the case. Ogwel is concerned that GACI misrepresented the contents of the AG’s report in order to get him by indicating that the audit report faulted him personally, whereas not. He wants GACI officials to be criminally investigated regarding their motivation to make such misrepresentation and falsification of facts.
There is also the issue of delayed operationalisation of the national recognition and rewards scheme to honour sports personalities who excel globally and make Uganda proud. In his report, the AG recognizes efforts the MoES and NCS have taken to have the relevant policy framework and the statutory instrument in place and proposes deeper stakeholder involvement. Yet in their dossier, claiming to quote the same report, GACI officials falsify the report to appear as if the auditors accused the general secretary of having a personal interest in this delayed operationalization.
The AG also said something about deductions from staff salaries, affecting a total of 24 NCS employees. That the deduction exceeded 50% of the basic pay and what is generally permissible under the public service standing orders. The AG noted this to be irregular but took note of the top management efforts to have the relevant policy in place. He never accused the GS of any intentional misconduct for personal gain, which GACI officials impute in their letter, purporting to be quoting the audit report. Ogwel’s lawyers believe this is all done internationally in order to cow their client into subsequently being blackmailed and extorted. The broader explanation is that, in some cases, such monthly deductions are related to loans individual staff members are supposed to previously have taken out of the staff sacco.
The AG flags Shs4.873bn as outstanding for federations and associations whose leaders are clearly faulted for not being able to promptly account for the funds previously disbursed to them by the NCS Secretariat. The auditors are concerned that some of the federations and associations aren’t properly managing the advanced funds. Yet in their letter, the GACI officials curiously turn all this to seem or appear like the auditors are faulting Ogwel and other NCS officials for failing to account for Shs4.873bn, whereas not. Ogwel’s lawyers demand that SHACU operatives inquire into all this deliberate misrepresentation especially regarding the motivation by such misleading utterances by GACI officials.
Absence of land titles, project codes and other requirements caused the Kakyeka stadium project not to promptly carry on-and the funds (Shs375m) were sent back to the consolidated fund at the end of the FY. Yet GACI officials in their letter are blaming all that on the GS personally for causing financial loss yet there is nowhere he is faulted for such in the report. The lawyers want SHACU to establish the truth behind all this deliberate falsification and misrepresentation of facts by GACI whose officials, it’s suspected, just have personal vendetta against Ogwel.
GACI also deliberately lied about another Shs6.5bn that was unutilized and returned to the consolidated fund. The NGO claimed that it was meant for subscriptions and support for federations yet in actual sense it was for Hoima and Kakyeka stadium development. Ogwel’s lawyers assert that all this shows the extent to which GACI officials are determined to keep making deceptive statements.
The AG also writes about the Shs23bn as supplementary funding which moved to NCS coffers yet the same was never requested for. Gratefully, it was approved by Parliament and Ogwel takes strong exception to the fact that GACI, in their letter, relied on that to accuse him of fraudulent conduct yet the AG report doesn’t have such insinuation. The AG advises the legislature to, in future, have strict adherence to the PFMR procedures.
The lawyers also highlight GACI’s false claim that the GS acted negligently by failing to fully utilize the Shs218.7bn for the planned and approved activities yet there is no such finding in the AG’s report which they claim to be quoting. That the AG never flagged any underperformance on the part of the GS and NCS. Many of the activities were established to have been fully implemented and reasons well understood in case of those activities that were partially implemented. SHACU is called upon to investigate the motive behind all this deliberate misrepresentation by the NGO whose officials claim to be mandated with enforcing accountability and oversight upon government entities.
The lawyers share copies of the AG report and GACI’s letter to enable SHACU investigators to see for themselves the deliberate defamation and malicious propaganda that has been propagated against their client. The defamation matrix, attached on Ogwel’s complaint, clearly shows the extent of wilful defamation and misrepresentation which they demand that GACI officials shouldn’t get away with, without being severely sanctioned. It’s made clear to SHACU that the AG report, which GACI claims to be paraphrasing renders an unqualified opinion which implies that NCS’ performance is satisfactory and no sanctioning was recommended against anyone at NCS.
The lawyers make it clear that, contrary to misrepresentation by GACI, the auditors didn’t establish any negligence, loss of funds or fraudulent diversion of any funds for personal use. Thy make it clear that their client has tolerated being defamed for enough and time has come for GACI officials to be held personally liable for both their criminal and civil defamation, which is clearly actionable under the laws of Uganda.
The contents of GACI’s 4th August letter are unequivocally dismissed as ‘malicious, false, misleading and defamatory,’ for which the concerned NGO officials who authored such are going to be held liable in courts of law where Dr. Ogwel is determined to seek remedy from, like any other law-abiding Uganda citizen.
As the civil suit is being prepared, Dr. Ogwel’s lawyers make it clear that their client deserves a remedy because his personal and professional reputation has been damaged. GACI officials are accused of creating unwarranted public suspicion in Dr. Ogwel as a public official, breaching the principle of responsible civil oversight and of engaging in clearly actionable defamation.
The lawyers also implore SHACU, as a corruption-fighting agency, to broadly become interested in inquiring into under hand methods that are being deployed by some rogue-minded actors who keep disguising to be doing legitimate civil society work whereas not.
The Unit is also called upon to inquire into the motivation behind the malicious and defamatory misrepresentation which GACI officials have been sustaining against Dr. Ogwel and potentially other holders of public office.
Ogwel’s legal team members have vowed not to rest until GACI officials are compelled to publicly retract their defamatory utterances with a clear undertaking never to do such a thing again. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
