Witness pins suspects in Shs8b MTN fraud case
MTN Mobile Money fraud suspect Richard Mwami (L) talks to his lawyer, Mr David Mpanga, at Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY JOSEPH KIGGUNDU
Kampala. A prosecution witness in the case where six former employees of MTN Uganda are on trial on charges of defrauding the company of Shs8b in a Mobile Money scam told court yesterday that the accused took advantage of the system breakdown to fleece the company.
Mr Phraise Lubega, the company’s former head of IT, and current manager in charge of Mobile Money, was speaking during cross-examination by the defence lawyers at the Anti-Corruption Court.
He said every employee had their own passwords which they used to access the Mobile Money network accounts.
The accused are: Mr Patrick Ssentongo, Ms Joan Nabugwawo, Mr Brian Okurut, Ms Angella Ayo, Mr Eriya Baryamwijuka and Mr Richard Mwami.
The prosecution alleges that the accused, between May and June 2011 at MTN offices in Kampala, stole Shs8b which came into their possession by virtue of their employment.
“Among the 20 administrators that MTN had, it was only Patrick Ssentongo who had the token password (master password) that allowed him access to the distribution of the Mobile Money....workers are not supposed to share passwords, it was only him in control,” Mr Lubega testified.
Accusation
He claimed the six accused stole the money after the FONDAMO Mobile Money system, which MTN was using, broke down because the number of subscribers had exceeded the installed capacity.
Mr Lubega said the FONDAMO system started developing problems in September 2009.
“The subscriber base exceeded what the system could handle,” he said.
Mr Lubega said MTN shut down the FONDAMO system in 2014 and introduced Ericson Mobile Money system, which was more secure.
