Since the creation of State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) in December 2018 by His Excellency, The President of Uganda, Gen. Yoweri Museveni acting under Article 99 (4) of the Constitution, the Unit has in liaison with the Criminal Investigations Department of Uganda Police acting under Article 120 (3) (a) and other constitutionally mandated agencies carried out several anti-corruption investigations and caused the charging of several persons before the Courts of Law.
1. From inception to date, the Unit has so far conducted investigations on corruption related offences in the Central Government (Ministries, Departments and Agencies), Local Governments and the Private Sector. These investigations are so far worth 250Bn/=. 146 persons have been charged before Courts of Law out of whom 120 are public officers currently on interdiction and 26 are Private Companies/Individuals. Fourteen (14) of these persons have been convicted and the other cases are pending in court at various stages.
A total of 1.73Bn/= was recovered; Shs. 1Bn/= being money recovered from Labour Export Companies that had taken money from desperate youths with the promise of jobs in the Middle East and failed to provide the jobs. Shs. 738m was money recovered from air supplies from Gaming and Lotteries Board and returned to the Treasury.
The 120 public officers include;
a. Kisoro South MP – Hon. Sam Bitangaro.
b. Accounting Officers/Permanent Secretaries/ CEOs from Institutions listed below;
(i) Mrs. Christine Guwatudde Kintu – Permanent Secretary, Mr. Joel
Wanjala – Accounting Officer, Mr. Martin Owor – Commissioner Disaster Management and Mr. Fred Lutimba – Asst.
Commissioner Procurement, all from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM)
(ii) Mr. Patrick Nyakana Mabiho – Secretary Human Rights Commission, Assimwe Wilfred Muganga, Rebecca Nassuna, Agirembabazi Willy and Tino Rebecca, all Principal Human Rights Officers and Wamala Tadeo – Accountant at the Commission.
(iii) Mr. Mujuni Lawrence – Secretary Equal Opportunities Commission, Olwor Sunday Nicholas – Under Secretary, Jemba Evans – Principal Compliance Officer, Kwihangana Manasseh – Senior Compliance Officer, Mugabe Moses – Senior Monitoring and Compliance Officer, Byangire Harriet – Senior Accountant at the Commission.
(iv) Mr. Edgar Agaba – CEO Gaming and Lotteries Board and John
Patrick Kazoora Patrick Kazoora – Manager Finance and Administration.
(v) Ms. Achimo Ruth – Secretary Soroti University, Odong James – Internal Auditor, Omoding Samuel Ag. University Secretary, Otim Gilbert – Ag. University Bursar and other staff of the University.
(vi) Senior officials from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (Wakiso and Mbarara MZOs).
c. Banking Institutions as indicated below;
(i) Mr. Stephen Mukweli, Managing Director-Post Bank, Directors and some members of senior management of the same bank.
(ii) Mr. David Malinga Akol, Director Currency BoU and some Branch Managers.
d. Local Government Accounting Officers as indicated below;
▪ 07 Chief Administrative Officers
▪ 05 Town Clerks
▪ 01 Mayor and,
▪ a number of Senior officers from the following districts and municipalities:
(i) Tororo (v) Mbarara
(ii) Arua (vi) Alebtong
(iii) Lira (vii) Dokolo
(iv) Lyatonde (viii) Amolatar
The Private Companies/Individuals are;
a. Directors of MTK Ltd; Fiona Kitaka – CEO, Dr. Francis Kitaka Jr – Operations Manager and Alex Natukunda – Commercial Manager were charged with obtaining 1,095,353,800/= by False Pretence, Conspiracy to defraud and forgery.
b. City businessman Mr. Abid Alam who was charged with conspiracy to defeat justice arising from his interference in cases related to land disputes in Kassanda District that led to the torture, death and malicious damage of property of residents of Kasanda.
c. Labour Externalisation Concerns;
The SH-ACU has so far received over 1000 complaints from desperate youths most of whom physically report. Mr. Benon Kunywana and Godfrey Kyalimpa both directors from Middle East Consultants one of the labour export companies have been charged with attempted trafficking of 40 desperate youths to the Middle East and are currently before the International Crimes Division of the High Court for trial. Investigations into fraudulent activities of labour export companies are ongoing.
(i) Recoveries
ACU recovered close to 1Bn/= out of the colossal sums of money fraudulently obtained from the desperate youths by labour export companies under the guise of “profitable employment abroad” and the money was paid back to them. The Unit is working with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to recover the outstanding claims.
(ii) Repatriation
Together with Police, ACU coordinated the return of 24 Ugandans that were being subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. In addition, we caused repatriation of 06 dead bodies/remains.
2. COVID- 19 INVESTIGATIONS
Following a directive from President, the Unit is investigating cases the OPM on Government’s Covid 19 response relating to;
i. Fraudulent Procurement of Relief Food Supplies in relation to alleged inflation of prices for food supplies to be distributed to the vulnerable as part of the Covid 19 response. The Unit in liaison with CID initiated investigations that led to the arrest and charging of the; Permanent Secretary – Mrs. Christine Guwatudde Kintu, Accounting Officer – Mr. Joel Wanjala, Commissioner Disaster Management – Mr. Martin Owor and Assistant Commissioner Procurement – Mr. Fred Lutimba. The Unit’s intervention led to a reduction of the prices and saved Government Shs. 8.65Bn.
ii. The Unit also intervened in the mismanagement of Movement Permits/Stickers and 10 persons namely;
• Sgt. Ariong Osikol Stephen
• Sabir Ali
• Ali Noshad
• Behlum Usana
• Abhina Sen
• Mutaawe Eddy
• Mayengo Moses
• Kavuma Honest
• Musoke Henry
• Musinguzi Wycliffe
have been charged before courts of law for unlawful possession of Government stores.
iii. One (1) Police Constable – Mpande Francis and LC Official – Assimwe Junior were also arrested and charged with aggravated torture after they roughed up a pregnant woman while enforcing the lockdown directive.
iv. Two people, an army officer Cpl. Kakuru E and a civilian – Mukasa Newton were arrested and charged with impersonation after they masqueraded as SHACU staff in attempt to illegally obtain relief supplies from the OPM stores.
Ofwono Opondo
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UGANDA MEDIA CENTRE
