By Mulengera ReportersIn her 8th August letter, the IGG Irene Mulyagonja calls for the sanctioning of two powerful figures working with the Parliamentary Commission. And these are Director of Clerks Emmanuel Bakwega and Paul Wabwire who deputizes Clerk Jane Kibirige.
In the three-page letter, Mulyagonja requires that the duo refunds a total of Shs99,235,200 having pocketed it under false menaces. Mulyagonja, whose teams are understood to be lately under pressure to double their efforts to match the public trust and media attention Afande Edith Nakalema has cultivated in such a short time, explains that the two took the money under the guise of attending conferences in Rwanda and UK ostensibly in 2015 and June 2016.
One of the seminars was themed: “Beyond aid: Innovative Governance, Financing and Partnership for post 2015 Agenda.” And this June 2016 specific seminar was claimed to have been attended at Wilton Park in United Kingdom.
The supposed organizers, whose information was corroborated by the British High Commission in Kampala, indicated to the IG investigators that the seminar actually took place in February 2015 and not in June 2016 as the two big men indicated in their accountability documents.
The invitation letters, invoices and receipts the duo submitted as part of their accountability evidence were disputed by Wilton Park as fraudulent and unauthentic. Mulyagonja says for this misappropriation, the duo shouldn’t walk away without any sanctioning. She also indicts Kenneth Madete, a Clerk to EALA Parliament, for being deceitful in his claim that Emmanuel Bakwega ever attended the EALA meeting Kigali hosted in 2015. Mulyagonja implies that Madete’s written claim that Bakwega attended is sham because there is no documentary evidence corroborating the same. The investigations was conducted under file number HQT/36/6/2017.
The two wealthy Parliamentary Commission bureaucrats have 90 days (basically three months) within which to refund the money to the IG Asset Recovery Account (003030088000007) or face prosecution in case they renege to pay up within that period.
Yet that’s not all that Mulyagonja, who these days is very tough, wants to see done to atone the financial loss occasioned by the two officials. She demands that the duo be submitted to Parliamentary Commission to face severe disciplinary proceedings.
This is “for receiving public funds to attend training abroad which they didn’t attend but fraudulently accounted for the money.” The Commission must reprimand the two within two months. Knowledgeable sources say it’s unlikely the two will escape sanctioning because even the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who actually chairs the Commission, has previously not been exactly very comfortable having Bakwega around.
Why? He had previously been marketed to the President as very appropriate to replace venerable Tandwekwire as Clerk to Parliament. Problem was that Kadaga perceived this as a process being championed by Amama Mbabazi loyalists at a time she was very uncomfortable doing government business with the man from Kanungu who then was a very powerful Prime Minister in Museveni’s Uganda.
Sources say that because of that turbulent history, Kadaga can’t be among those losing sleep or even agonizing over the very indicting IGG report calling for action against the duo.
OBORE EXONERATED
Remarkably the same IGG report exonerates Parliamentary Director of Communication & Public Affairs Chris Obore like never before. The whistle blower had simultaneously accused him of acting improperly in relation to the Shs151.4m that was dubiously expended under the guise of procuring a professional heavy-duty video camera and the relevant stand.
But Mulyagonja discovers that the whistle blower’s anger was misplaced because the man from Bukedea hadn’t yet taken charge at the time the impugned purchase was undertaken. Instead the IGG identifies officers who should be crucified over this anomalous procurement.
These are Chief Procurement Officer Julian Kaganzi, Senior Procurement Officer Patrick Lassu, Public Affairs Officer Abdul Kasule Kagimu and stores officer Sam Bosio and Barbra Nabitaka of the CPA Directorate.
That Kaganzi is liable for the Procurement Unit’s failure to develop elaborate specifications for camera purchase, Lassu for failing to seek due guidance from the user department regarding the required specifications and Kasule for not seeking Accounting Officer and Contracts Committee approval which made the entire procurement decision irregular.
Without suggesting any sanction (perhaps for want of jurisdiction), the IGG also exposes M/S MTA Computers Ltd the private company that was contracted to supply the camera in question. That they delivered the camera in pieces on top of the lens being missing. That in the end, “the tripod was substituted for the lens which in effect altered the specifications.” That the PDW-850 model of the camera they delivered differed from the PDW-800 that was stipulated in the supply contract. This alternation was permitted and occasioned without the concurrence of the Contracts Committee being sought and obtained.
The model the company delivered couldn’t be put to any use (up to this day) because another Shs40m was required to purchase a card reader to make it work. Hence the heavy-duty camera that cost the taxpayer so much remains redundant, a fact over which the IGG is clearly displeasured.
Another Shs3.4m was paid for the camera stand before it was actually delivered and this was on the strong advice of Bosio and Nabitaka who Mulyagonja indicts for misleading staff in the accounts department into paying for a supply that hadn’t been delivered. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
