M7 Named In OPM Scam
Former PS in the Office of the Prime Minister Pius Bigirimana
The scandal currently causing heads to roll in the Prime Minister’s office has not spared Uganda’s number one, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
It is alleged that Shs 6.2 bn was used to fulfill the President’s pending promises to the electorate in eastern Uganda.
President Museveni is the latest high profile individual to be implicated in what has come to be known as the ‘OPM scam’ after the first lady.
The First Lady Janet Museveni was early this month implicated in the scandal when it was alleged that part of the money was diverted to finance her trips to Israel.
Parliament’s public accounts committee which is investigating the mismanagement of funds meant for the recovery of Northern Uganda from two decades of war was told that the money in question was diverted to procure a ferry Museveni promised voters.
President Museveni had promised this ferry to the people of Teso during the past election campaigns.
The Permanent Secretary in the Office Of the Prime Minister who denied knowledge of the funds also apologized over an extra Shs 150 million and Shs 207.9 million that was irregularly paid to Nakaseke District and Akamba Ltd respectively.
Mr. Paul Mwiru, the committee’s deputy chided Office of the Prime Minister’s Permanent secretary Pius Bigirimana for channeling the money to purposes it was not intended for.
The PS defended himself saying a political decision was taken on the matter though he failed to disclose those responsible for making this decision.
Bigirimana was also accused by the committee of masterminding the fraud because he wrote a letter to the Accountant General asking him to release the said funds in Bank of Uganda.
The Office Of the Prime Minister has been under the spotlight after Uganda’s Auditor General carried out a forensic investigation that revealed a cool Shs 50 billion meant the Peace and Recovery Development Programme in Northern Uganda had been mismanaged.
This latest corruption scandal has seen a host of western countries Britain, Ireland, Sweden among others suspend aid to Uganda. International aid forms a part of the country’s budget.
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It’s not surprising nrm does whatever it takes to stay in power,God help us all
The fish starts to rote from its head. Its not suprising that M7 had a hand in this.
There we go! Do we finaly have a loose canon on deck?
This is not surprising. The man had tried hard to shield the PS; it’s because he had a reason not let the cat out….. Slowly the truth will triumph. The almighty God protect this Uganda otherwise it is doomed.
We Ugandans in diaspora are applealing to Ugandans to realise that our country is going to the stone age now it’s up to us to bring it back, what amazes us is you Ugandans back home your are busy with the so-called elections, demos etc being brough by Besigye whom all of you know better than us. Pls Ugandans for the best of our country, the NRM goverment has shown us that they can steal from the poor and instead of investing that money back in Uganda they are busy buying houses in Usa, South Africa, Canada etc. The so-called president of Uganda has 45+ convoy of cars that escorts him when there is no medicine in our hospitals, unemployment, roads especially Kafumbe Mukasa road, poverty etc. If you Ugandans back home dnt wake up we will go beyond poverty.
the man should be left free bcoz he helped the country to blow the whistle otherwise how else could we have know the scam?
He the president should step down for farther investigation