IGG freezes Kazinda property

What you need to know:

  • Case. The Inspector General of Government is prosecuting Kazinda on charges of accumulation of illicit wealth.

Kampala.

The Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, has frozen properties owned by Godfrey Kazinda, former principal accountant in Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), who was convicted for corruption and is facing more similar charges in court.
Kazinda was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to five years in jail by the Anti-Corruption Court for gross embezzlement and causing financial loss to government when he served in the OPM.
Ms Mulyagonja told the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on Friday that despite the ongoing trial, a restraining order had been issued on some of the vehicles and other properties believed to belong to Kazinda.
“If we are successful, we shall be able to take over the property and return them to government,” she said.
Attached, among others, include a posh residential home in Bukoto suburb and a fleet of vehicles.
“There are restraining orders, first of all that property that has been retained and [some of] the vehicles,” Ms Mulyagonja told Parliament.
In the ongoing court cases, the IGG is prosecuting Kazinda on charges of accumulation of illicit wealth he acquired by abusing his position when he was principal accountant in OPM.
The Inspector General of Government also told the committee chaired by West Budama South MP Jacob Oboth Oboth that she was also investigating officers implicated in the Shs6 billion “handshake” they received from government for handling the oil tax dispute with Tullow Oil in London.
Last year, a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) indicted 42 government officials for illegally benefiting from the money donated as a presidential reward to do work they are officially employed to do.
“We received the report and there are specific areas where they asked us to investigate but broadly they wanted us to investigate whether there was any criminality attendant to the findings that the law was not followed in giving the Shs6b to the officers involved,” said Ms Mulyagonja.
However, she said the investigation might not conclude soon.
“As you carry out an investigation, you keep running into other [sets of] information and you just can’t abandon the investigation before you reach the conclusion of what is alleged,” she told the national assembly.
Among key milestones achieved in the current financial year, the IGG stated that 2486 corruption cases have been investigated to conclusion, with at least 40 government officials facing prosecution in courts.