Bukenya, Kutesa face MPs over Chogm cash

Vice President Prof Gilbert Bukenya and nine other ministers are to appear before Parliament, starting this week, over alleged abuse of public funds. The officials, who include Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa, will appear before the Public Accounts Committee which is investigating the use of taxpayers’ money to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in November 2007.

“We have not invited these ministers for fun, we have evidence to prove how Prof Bukenya and other ministers interfered with the procurement process,” Pac Chairman Mr Nandala Mafabi told Daily Monitor on Friday.

Accountability
“We have already met the accounting officers and now we want Prof Bukenya and his colleagues in Cabinet to account for their actions. The Chogm sub-committee members were named by the witnesses and the taxpayers would like to hear from them on how they spent Shs500 billion.”

Agriculture Minister Hope Mwesigye is expected to appear first on Thursday. MPs want Ms Mwesigye, then state minister for Local Government, to explain the use of Shs6b spent on “beautification” projects. She will be followed by Mr Kutesa and ministers John Nasasira (Works), Serapio Rukundo (state-Tourism), Ms Beatrice Wabudeya (Presidency), Fred Omach (state-Finance) and Prof Bukenya.

Finance Minister, Ms Syda Bbumba and the Attorney General, Prof Khiddu Makubuya, have also been summoned. Vice President Bukenya headed a Cabinet sub-committee which oversaw Chogm. A technocrat in the Works ministry accused Prof Bukenya of pushing for the award of a controversial Shs9.4b deal to provide cars for the meeting. MPs say the award of the tender, which was first given to Spear Motors Ltd for outright purchase but later awarded to Europcar/Motorcare for lease, violated government tendering procedures.

VP denies responsibility
Prof Bukenya denies personal responsibility and says President Museveni was aware of the tendering. However State House spokesperson Tamale Mirundi recently told the Vice President to “stop hiding behind the President and face Chogm probe like a real man”.

Asked whether Prof Bukenya was willing to appear before Pac for questioning, VP’s Spokesperson, Mr James Mutuuta said yesterday: “The VP has nothing to hide, whatever decision he took as the Chairperson of the Chogm cabinet sub-committee was in good faith.” He added: “In any case, the Vice President is the No.2 in this country and as a law abiding citizen he cannot refuse to appear before a committee of Parliament if there is anything that needs clarification. He will be happy to appear before Pac to answer all the queries.” If found guilty of misuse of funds and abuse of office, the Vice President and the ministers in question could be censured and arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court.

The inquiry has already heard evidence suggesting that Prof Bukenya and other senior ministers “arm-twisted” permanent secretaries in respect to various procurement deals in which billions of shillings in public funds was lost.

On November 4, 2009, Ministry of Works Permanent Secretary Charles Muganzi told MPs: “The Chogm Cabinet sub-committee chaired by the Vice President was exerting pressure on us and that’s why we moved from an ideal method of international open competitive bidding to restrictive bidding and later resorted to direct bidding.”

In singling out Prof. Bukenya, Mr Muganzi added: “Sometimes the Vice President could even say he was also part of the Presidency and I have documents to prove this. There were pressures from the ministers even when we could advise them and there was no way I could have rebelled against His Excellency the Vice President.”

Mr Kutesa faces questions about his previous shareholding in the company that won the car tender. The Foreign Affairs minister will also be asked to explain why he single-handedly appointed Saatchi & Saatchi, a private firm, to manage Chogm sponsorship collections, in violation of procurement rules.

Mr Kutesa denies any wrongdoing.
Information Minister Ms Kabakumba Masiko appears before Pac this morning to defend her statement accusing committee members of torturing witnesses. She made the comment last week during a requiem mass for Joseph Behakanira, a hotelier who died of complications resulting from high blood pressure soon days after appearing before the Chogm probe committee.