Museveni orders probe into Shs76b UPDF scandal

President Museveni

KAMPALA- President Museveni has tasked several individuals, including former Electoral Commission chairman Badru Kiggundu, to investigate a Shs76b procurement scandal that has rattled the army and the Ministry of Defence, Daily Monitor has established. Dr Kiggundu in particular, our sources confirm, has since reported back to the President confirming most of the rot that had earlier been written in several reports of investigations into procurement problems and shoddy works on the army’s Kaweweta Recruit Training School.
Daily Monitor broke the story of this scandal on March 6, 2017 involving little-known businessman Eria Mubiru and his companies J2E Investment Corporation and Roester Construction Corporation through collusion with some Ministry of Defence and Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) officials.
At that time, two soldiers who were members of an internal administrative review committee which was investigating the scam and had been arrested during the investigations, had just been released on bail from Makindye Military Barracks.
Maj Mark Wanyama, attached to the UPDF Audit and Finance Department, and Lt Arthur Ruhinda, attached to the army’s Engineering Brigade, had been accused by Mr Mubiru of soliciting a Shs7b bribe from him with threats that he would lose his contracts if he did not succumb to their demand.
Two army officers have since petitioned the President, Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, Inspector General of Government and Parliament, saying they are being persecuted for standing by the truth during the investigation.
The ministry of Defence’s administrative review committee, to which the two were members, was set up late last year to look into the findings by an earlier investigation led by the then Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Lt Gen Charles Angina. In the UPDF structure the Deputy Chief of Defence Forces is also the Inspector General (ombudsman) of the army. Gen Angina had found that Mr Mubiru’s companies had been awarded five contracts for construction works of the Kaweweta Recruit Training School (KRTS) through either fraudulent bidding processes or without any procurement procedure at all, and had presented fake profiles of employees to win the contracts.
The report stated that Mr Mubiru himself had claimed he was a qualified engineer whereas not.

Gen Angina further found that Mr Mubiru’s companies had forged books of accounts, evaded taxes and had failed to execute the works paid for. Phases I, II and III of the works at the training school had not been completed, several years after the contracts had been awarded yet Mubiru had been paid most of the contract money.
Gen Angina wondered how the same company would be awarded another phase of the works before completing the previous one, and pointed out that much of the work that had been done was shoddy.
As the administrative review committee probe progressed, the two army officers mentioned above say the members came under serious pressure from Mr Mubiru.
“Senior members of the committee had made several attempts to doctor the report to exclude facts on collusion, fraud and plunder which some of us objected to outright due to the magnitude of the loss and impunity exhibited on these projects,” the duo’s petition reads in part.
They add: “As a result of the said collusion, your petitioners have been victimised and are currently on remand at Makindye (military barracks) where they have been since January 2017. Your petitioners were arrested in a rather unprofessional and unjust manner, and were subsequently charged at the Unit Disciplinary Committee sitting at CMI headquarters, Mbuya.”
By the time Daily Monitor’s first story on this matter was published two months ago, Maj Wanyama and Lt Ruhinda had been released on bail on February 24, but their bail was cancelled on March 10, on speculation that they would interfere with investigations. The Unit Disciplinary Committee then committed them to the General Court Martial for trial on charges of soliciting a Shs7b bribe.

Committee integrity
The review committee, chaired by Mr Okello Engola, the State minister for Defence, was set up after a meeting of the top management committee of the Defence ministry on November 21, 2016.
The committee found “serious divergence of opinion” between the reports of the army Engineering Brigade and that of Gen Angina.
Also on the review committee were Brig Sam Kavuma, deputy commander of Air Force; Chief of Logistics, Brig Ramadhan Kyamulesire; Col Abdu Rugumayo from Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, Lt Col Luke Arikosi from the Engineering Brigade; Maj Wanyama; and Lt Ruhinda.
Maj Wanyama and Lt Ruhinda make several averments in the petition to the President against the review committee to which they were part, particularly minister Engola.
“A sub-committee headed by the chairman (Mr Engola) held a private meeting in the Minister of State for Defence’s office with the contractor (Mr Mubiru) on January 16, 2017 and a resolution was made to arrest the undersigned petitioners following pre-planned allegations by the contractor against us that we extorted money from him with threats of cancelling his contracts with Ministry of Defence. We were not given any opportunity to respond to the allegations,” the petitioners submitted to the President.
The two soldiers further allege “Mubiru had earlier tried to compromise us directly and later using some committee members to drop certain facts in the report which we had objected to.”
The two say that by the time of their arrest, the committee had finished gathering facts and was “at the final stage of interacting with stakeholders before producing the final report.” They say during their incarceration, the remaining members of the committee produced a separate report to the TMC (top management committee of Defence) which has led to further payment of Shs1.6b to Mr Mubiru.
The petitioners aver that the contract costs were overstated by up to Shs37b and that the reasonable amount for the five separate contracts should have been at most Shs 30b, not Shs76b as stated.
“This is evidenced by over-costing, with assistance of the Engineering Brigade, false bidding and stage-managed procurements,” the petitioners say.
The five projects at KRTS include phases I, II and III, the Parade Ground and water project.
When contacted for a comment, Defence and Military spokesman, Brig Richard Karemire, said: “The ministry will act on the report once it finishes studying it. The officers (Maj Wanyama and Lt Ruhinda) must wait and answer the charges in the General Court Martial; they should not hide their unprofessional conduct by crying out that they are incarcerated.”
The ministry leadership, he said, will study the report and comprehensively address all issues raised.
“It will not leave any stone unturned,” Brig Karemire said.