By Our Reporters
Friday evening, Police harvested two prominent employees of the Inspectorate of Government (IG) after they conspired to blackmail and extort money from a top civil servant. The much tormented victim alerted the IG top management who participated in laying the trap that resulted into their own staff being nabbed extorting Shs60m from the wealthy civil servant. Mulengera news has interviewed concerned authorities and this development has since been confirmed by IG Manager Communications Ali Munira. She says a more detailed account will be given at a later date.
The two ill-fated IG officials are Alex Mutungi and Alex Kyangungu who Munira said had long ceased to be an employee of the Inspectorate. The development comes only days after disgruntled insiders constituted themselves into a whistle blowing syndicate and petitioned State House anti-corruption Tsar Col Edith Nakalema urging her to investigate a range of irregular happenings at the Inspectorate including officers that often solicit and obtain bribes from people they are supposed to investigate.
Whereas Munira was uncomfortable disclosing much, we separately spoke to knowledgeable sources that corroborated the story. That the duo had negotiated for Shs60m but the targeted civil servant agreed to offer an advance of Shs4m and get the balance after Easter weekend. The guys were impatient. They kept calling and putting him on pressure, which escalated his diabetic condition and became a source of discomfort to his own family. It was then that he was advised to speak to the IGG Irene Mulyagonja directly calling for her intervention. It was then that a trap was set for the guys who were nabbed red handed as they came to pick more.
But why would he pay? What was the context? Sources close to the matter say that the two had (through hacking) secured unauthorized access to the IG servers where the electronic wealth declaration forms are being kept by the Inspectorate. They discovered the stinking rich civil servant had under declared his wealth and stated incomplete information pertaining to his possession.
GOING FOR THE MONEY
The duo, working with friendly insiders, got a (forged) letter drafted creating an impression they had been assigned to investigate and have the offending civil servant apprehended and criminally prosecuted. On being ready with all the information, the two rang the civil servant and had a meeting with him. It was brought to the attention of the targeted civil servant that his goose had been cooked and the only way to save himself was to “cooperate and speak the language of men.”
Negotiations began and the duo said the magnitude of his offence was such that consequences would be dire. He was told parting with Shs60m was the only way he could save himself. He expressed willingness to pay but wasn’t ready with full price and offered an advance which the duo kept saying was too little as there was a plan to even apprehend him during Easter holiday.
As indicated above, he didn’t readily have the money yet the pressure was too much. He involved Mulyagonja and the rest is history. Instead the duo is the one spending the Easter weekend in police cells at CPS Kampala whereafter they will be paraded before the Magistrates Court for formal charging.
They face the offence of solicitation of and receiving a bribe, a mission they embarked on after forging their own complaint as if there was a whistle blower at the targeted civil servant’s MDA on whose petition the Inspectorate was responding.
The successful hacking by unauthorized persons into the IG electronic system is the potential mischief Maj Kakooza Mutale sought to cure in advance in 2017 when he filed a case in court challenging the same. His argument was there would be unauthorized access that could result into top civil servants and wealthy politicians being blackmailed by actors like these. Unfortunately, this being Uganda, Mutale’s well-intentioned suit has never been accorded a hearing debt. The judicial officers, who resent scrutiny around wealth declarations because they are understood to be in a habit of under declaring too, maliciously referred the matter for mediation as part of the broader strategy to circumvent any public hearing of the same.
Munira was tight-lipped but knowledgeable sources say the circumstances of the youthful duo’s past departure from the IG related to involvement into similar dubious activities meaning they aren’t first time offenders. This isn’t the first time the IG employees are being prosecuted after being nabbed in circumstances aided by the IG top management itself in line with its zero-tolerance to corruption approach.
Years earlier a one Ampeirwe was successfully prosecuted for soliciting a Shs300m bribe from former NSSF DMD Geraldine Ssali against whom a malicious whistle blower petition had been filed with the Inspectorate. She reported to Mulyagonja and a similar trap was set and the conspirators were harvested like grasshoppers. (For comments, email us on mulengera2040@gmail.com).
