CORRUPTION: Ministry of Works official on spot for picking a bribe while on South Africa trip as whistleblower exposes IGG for covering up Sh100bn corruption scandal at the same ministry

A top official at the Ministry of Works is on the spot for soliciting and picking a bribe while on a trip in South Africa.

This publication understands the bribe picked by this official is close to a billion or more and is related to influencing award of contract.

The revelation comes at a time when the office of the Inspector General of Government is being accused of covering up multi-billion corruption scandals to a tune of over sh100bn at the Ministry of Works and Transport.

The whistleblower, a long term serving official at the same ministry alleges that officials there swindle taxpayers’ money with impunity and his eyes have seen a lot in the 23 years he has spent there.

When he attempted to question them after he authored an internal Memo detailing the misappropriation of approximately sh100bn, efforts to show him exit began. And not to go down without a fight, he decided to bell the cat by running to Dr. Patricia Achan Okiria, the Deputy Inspector General of Government.

He now accuses that office of instead jumping into bed with the alleged looters.

MATTERS RAISED

According to documents in our possession, the whistleblower names an official Mr. K as the racket leader. That Mr.K often invokes State House and the President’s name “to give the impression that he is “connected” and untouchable by anyone who dares to question his schemes of embezzling public funds and other cases of improprieties because his family is personally known to the President”.

It is alleged that he influences dubious contract awards where he earns handsomely. And these are mostly related to printing and supplying of computerised Driving Permits where top firms are involved and contracts are always in billions.

The whistleblower alleges the racket also involves a foreign firm and two Ugandan ones where he has interests—one owned by his lawyer and another owned by a prominent journalist at one of the top private media houses in Uganda, always critical of President Museveni and NRM by extension.

On top of getting the contract awards dubiously, he also wonders whether appropriate taxes are paid by these firms.

This same official (Mr.K) further stands accused of actively trying to sabotage the initiative to register and track all Motor Vehicles as per the President’s strategic security directive.

“It would undermine his efforts to access funds from MOFPED since the two projects are similar, if not the same,” the whistleblower states and further raising concerns related to the accountability of about sh7Obn the ministry has spent on Motor Vehicle Registration Activities with nothing tangible to show.

“These funds could have been used to subsidize the acquisition cost of the Digital Motor Vehicle Number/Registration Plates, especially for motorcycle owners and riders. On the other hand, it was and still is a huge setback for the Transport Sector as a whole that these funds could not be used to compensate landlords/ Landowners for the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to ease traffic congestion in Kampala.”

The whistleblower wonders why the country should spend sh100bn for Motor Vehicle Registration by the Ministry of Works when URA has performed the function since its establishment.

This same official stands accused of not exhibiting enough appetite to participate in discussions to find a solution for menacing Kampala traffic congestion caused by undisciplined drivers. This concern was reportedly raised by investors to the President sometime back.

Interpreting it as an eating scheme, this official reportedly proposed infrastructural investments above sh16trn, which was impossible and the President’s directive on “discipline by drivers to control congestion” was not implemented, and nothing has changed yet a cost effective proposal about ‘recruitment of traffic wardens so that Police can ensure road discipline during these peak hours’ could have done wonders.

BACK TO THE IGG

The whistleblower alleges that he revealed all this to Dr. Patricia Achan Okiria, the Deputy Inspector General of Government but she instead jumped into bed with the alleged looters.

He says: “The Deputy Inspector General of Government, Dr. Patricia Achan Okiria, responded to my complaint of Witch Hunt, Persecution, Marginalisation and Victimisation due to my opinions on corruption by consulting the same Ministry I was accusing of these crimes. Instead of responding to me as the complainant, she wrote to the Permanent Secretary and gave me a copy. Instead of investigating my accusations of corruption, she wrote to the Ministry for a response and agreed with every explanation or justification the Permanent Secretary gave. She never interviewed anyone on whether my accusations had any merit. These actions by the Deputy IGG have left me unprotected, as provided for in The Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2010. I believe Dr Okiria must be held accountable for handling my complaint the way she did, which was a clear abuse of her office and serves only to keep Patriotic Public Servants quiet and scared.”

He further accuses Ministry of Works officials of not doing enough to investigate the alleged corruption issues he raised.

“…when I wrote an Internal Memo to the Permanent Secretary with a detailed analysis of why Mr. K was illegally trying to remove me from office, I copied it to the Ministers. To my utter disbelief, none acted on my accusations [I expected them to order an internal administrative investigation of my accusations because they were not frivolous]. They have intentionally not acted on the information I revealed to them. The Internal Memo details the misappropriation of approximately UGX 100 Billion.”

The whistleblower who now wants President Museveni to intervene personally says he has also reported the matter to Tom Magambo’s Police CID but he fears officials there may not act differently from what Deputy IGG Ochan did.

“I reported the cases to the Director of the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Uganda Police Office. Although they seem to be doing the right thing, the investigation is taking too long, and I am concerned they might have been compromised just as the Deputy IGG might have been compromised.”

Ministry of Works and IGG have been contacted for a comment.

This publication is still analyzing all documents in our possession and full details including names of officials, firms and how the money is embezzled will be in our subsequent publication.

DEAR READER, CALL: 0777959024 OR EMAIL: [email protected] WITH AS MUCH EVIDENCE AS POSSIBLE IF YOU HAVE A HOT STORY YOU WOULD LIKE US TO PUBLISH ABOUT: FRAUD IN BANKS, BETTING FIRMS, CHEATERS, DIVORCE FILES, S3X NETWORKS, S3X FOR MARKS, HARASSMENT OF ALL NATURE AT OFFICE BY BOSSES, CHILD NEGLECT, WETLAND OCCUPATION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, VIDEOS, IMPUNITY or CORRUPTION (in government agencies/ MDA’s, NGOs, Ministries, Private sector), FIGHTS IN OFFICES, JOB WARS/ WITCH HUNT, URA TAX FRAUD/NON-COMPLIANCE, CHEATING MONEY LENDERS, BUSINESS WRANGLES, SUBSTANDARD PRODUCTS, GOLD SCAMS, NSSF REMITTANCES NON COMPLIANCE, LAND ISSUES, INTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS EXPOSES, POLITICAL WRANGLES…ETC.

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