IGG wants Nyombi out of Katosi road case
What you need to know:
Allegations. Ms Irene Mulyagonja in an application to the Nakawa High Court says the Attorney General and the minister of Works clearly represent the interests of CICO
KAMPALA.
The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Justice Irene Mulyagonja, has written to court to remove Attorney General Peter Nyombi from defending the IGG in a case where Chinese company CICO sued the government over the cancelled Mukono-Katosi road project.
Ms Mulyagonja on Thursday filed the application in Nakawa High Court seeking permission to defend herself over her actions against CICO.
Early this month, CICO sued the government and secured a court injunction to stop the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) from implementing disciplinary action against the company as directed by the IGG.
The IGG had earlier released a preliminary report of investigations documenting collusion between Eutaw and CICO to defraud UNRA of Shs165 billion and ordered removal of the company from the project site for lack of a valid contract.
However, Mr Nyombi had on October 29 written a legal opinion advising President Museveni to ignore the previous advice from his Deputy Attorney General Freddie Ruhindi which had implicated CICO in impropriety in the Katosi project. Nyombi told the President that CICO be retained as the project contractor.
This was after Mr Ruhindi had on September 23 advised the State minister for Works, Mr John Byabagambi, against trying to legalise the dubious “sub-contract” CICO was using to work on the road.
CICO had been sub-contracted by Eutaw Construction Company, which won the original contract but was later found to be a phony company and the contract was accordingly annulled by the IGG.
Eutaw had been advanced Shs24.8b and a police investigation into the matter is on-going.
Ms Mulyagonja and Mr Ruhindi argued that CICO should be barred from continuing with the Katosi project since it had become a subject of police investigations on suspicion of collusion with Eutaw to defraud the Uganda government.
However Mr Nyombi, in his letter to President Museveni on October 29, 2014, said: “To-date there is no incontrovertible evidence to prove that Eutaw and CICO did collude to commit this offence. Mere suspicion cannot be construed to constitute evidence of the commission of a crime.” (See full letter in People&Power magazine)
It is on this basis, that the IGG fears the Attorney General cannot defend her decisions against CICO efficiently.