By Mulengera Reporters
Rose Kafeero, the elderly Secretary (PS) office of the Inspectorate of Government says “Uganda is full of mafias who can do anything.” Kafeero, an experienced civil servant, has said this in order to defend herself against the background of the Shs100bn procurement scandal in which she has been implicated. In a 6th December whistle blower petition to PPDA, members of the Evaluation & Contracts Committeee of the IG inform PPDA ED Benson Turamye that Kafeero has been putting them on pressure to make sure the Shs100bn deal to construct the IG headquarters on the vacant plot opposite Garden City goes to her favorite contractor Roko Construction even when it doesn’t qualify. The aggrieved staff inform PPDA that Kafeero along with the head PDU summoy them to her office and directed them to “ensure the contract is awarded to Roko.” She seems determined because this directive to the CC members came after PPDA had cancelled the earlier procurement process on grounds that Roko didn’t qualify and had therefore been fraudulently awarded the contract. PPDA’s initial intervention resulted from a petition by Seyani Brothers who called for an administrative review having concluded that Roko was just favored otherwise it didn’t qualify. The ground for this PPDA cancellation was that Roko didn’t have the Shs20bn minimum balance on it’s bank account as had been required. It also hadn’t constructed a similar 15 storey building in the five years preceding the IGG contract. When PPDA cancelled the thing and directed fresh procurement, ill-intentioned IGG bosses didn’t give up on efforts to ensure generous Roko bounces back. They issued new guidelines whereby the period of previous work was expanded from 5 to 7 years and the Shs20bn bank balance requirement was waved all clearly aimed at favoring Roko. As accounting officer or PS, Rose Kafeero supervises the PDU and this is why she can’t escape culpability on the latest procurement scandal. It’s against this background that she told Daily Monitor’s Misairi Thembo Kahungu that she is in all these problems because this country is full of mafias who she says are out to lay traps and get her for destruction. She seems to imply that even the incorruptible PPDA, which has continued exposing her PDU, is being influenced by the same mafias. This comes moments before the President addresses the nation on the question of corruption. This scandal could give Museveni a good entry point to bash the IGG in his address today. He already says the IGG has failed and this justifies his decision to create a new anti-graft agency headed by his cadre James Tweheyo. Watch this space!
