OPM SCANDAL TAKES NEW TWIST AS UNHCR EMPLOYS TOP M7 MINISTER’S SON

By Our Reporters

It appears scandalous developments engulfing Kampala-based UN agencies, including UNHCR, won’t be abetting soon. As the ghost refugee saga continues to be investigated, Mulengera news website has intercepted fresh information indicating how top UNHCR officials recently flouted their own rules (or rules they are ideally expected to embrace as a matter of best practice) and dubiously recruited three people in order to appease one of the very senior political leaders at the OPM. The three people recruited for juicy jobs into the UN system are blood relatives of the top political leader whose active backing and support the UNHCR badly needed to successfully discredit Uganda regarding its capacity to credibly handle the refugee registration function. As we reported earlier, the ongoing refugee scandal at the OPM is a God-sent opportunity for top officials in UN refugee agencies (basically WFP & UNHCR) to convince donor countries and agencies that GoU officials are too shady and inefficient to be entrusted with registration which is a very critical component of refugee management. The UN officials in the past, as we reported in our Sunday story, unsuccessfully tried to manipulate ministers like Tarsis Kabwegyere, Stephen Malinga and made all sorts of offers but the two ministers were too patriotic and refused to conduct themselves in a manner that would hurt national interests of their country.

BACK TO THE SCAM:
As part of their efforts to continue wooing the relevant political leadership at the OPM, the UN officials recently made an offer to one of the political leaders. According to very reliable sources, the generous package included promises for cash sweeteners, a brand new posh vehicle and jobs for the very influential political leader’s relatives. The three relatives’ identities will for now be concealed only describing them with some initials. They have been deployed to work in refugee settlements upcountry namely Arua and Moyo which are infested with mostly refugees from South Sudan and DR Congo. One of them is a son to the politician and the other two are nephews to the same political leader. Their respective initials go as follows: D/O, JL & SK. “It’s okay for anyone to get employed and begin working but the problem in this case is that the trio hasn’t been subjected to any interview process and the whole thing is irregular,” said a disgruntled UNHCR insider. The trio, who will be earning a lot of money in salaries, has been recruited as refugee protection officers and the disgruntled UNHCR insiders are pondering petitioning Geneva to have the irregular recruitment investigated. To comment on this & other Mulengera news stories, reach us on 0703164755!