OPM scam: Just get back our money

Forget the thugs in the “Pirates of the Caribbean”; the Office of the Prime Minister and other public offices are fast turning into safe hunting grounds for tricksters. It all started with a special audit, which found substantial evidence, detailing how foreign aid from Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark was fiddled in a sophisticated scam that resulted in the theft of at least Shs50 billion. This was money meant for the poor people of northern Uganda and Karamoja, who are facing traumatic conditions.

A few years ago, a gang of crooked government officials decided to swindle millions of dollars from the Global Fund meant to buy life-saving drugs for people living with HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis. Part of this money was supposed to combat malaria, which kills 320 people every day in Uganda.

Similarly, they also pocketed the foreign aid meant for immunisation of children against the six killer diseases. In the process, millions of children must have died but somehow, for these tricksters life goes on.

With that money, the new breed of tricksters may have built mansions and financed luxurious shopping trips for their families in eminent places.

To date, this money has not been recovered. But in some way the Ministry of Health was ordered by the Cabinet to use taxpayers’ money to refund the stolen Gavi cash. How about the infamous 2007 Chogm spectacle where over Shs500 billion was lost and not a soul was asked to refund a shilling? At the highlight of this lugubrious event in Kampala, the tricksters planted grass and flowers for the Commonwealth summit and later claimed they were eaten by goats and cattle.

Unsurprisingly, Parliament did nothing. Having said that, the Parliament’s investigation into the apparent theft at the Office of the Prime Minister kicked off on Tuesday with officials from the Treasury — the custodians of public funds but were part of the scam. Officials from the Bank of Uganda will be followed by their colleagues at the epicentre of the scam in the coming week.

But when you sit in the Public Accounts Committee, which is investigating the grand theft at the OPM and you hear the bizarre tales from people entrusted with safeguarding public funds, you realise how crafty we have become as a nation.

The investigation into theft of millions of dollars in foreign aid meant for the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for northern Uganda and Karamoja started in earnest and continues to unearth scandal after scandal.

On Day 1, the PAC heard that a former Principal Internal Auditor in the OPM, Mr Shaban Wejula, who had discovered the scam involving a racket of light-fingered officials from Treasury, OPM and Bank of Uganda, was “politically” transferred back to the Ministry of Finance on concocted grounds that he was a fault-finder and an incompetent officer.

On Day 2, the deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, told the PAC that Mr Pius Bigirimana, the man in the middle of the storm, had told him that Mr Wejula was asking bribes from him and that former Premier, Apolo Nsibambi, also called him on the same day, saying that some people were “disturbing” the Permanent Secretary. It’s rather sad that this man was removed because he had found faults at the OPM.

The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Chris Kassami, told PAC that at the pinnacle of this drama and the pressure exerted on this man, he even wanted to quit the profession. The popular view is that if Mr Bigirimana had not asked Mr Wejula to leave, the scam at the OPM wouldn’t have taken place. It was also strange that Mr Muhakanizi hurried to conclude that this Principal Internal Auditor was incompetent without following the rules of natural justice — giving him the opportunity to be heard.

By all standards, the inferences in the Auditor General’s report on the OPM scam are disturbing. For instance, the auditors found evidence of fraudulent transfer of more than Shs20.1 billion meant for PRDP from the Budget support accounts to a secret account in Bank of Uganda: The Crisis Management Project where the tricksters illegally utilised funds without approved work plans and authority.

On diversion of funds, an additional Shs18.1 billion meant for PRDP activities was funneled to the National Policy Disaster Management without any authority. The most interesting part is that the donors were contacted and denied agreeing to fund this policy. This expenditure line was smuggled into the project for people to swindle public funds. Another Shs16.2 billion was fraudulently paid by a trickster at the OPM to staff, secret accounts, private companies, Centenary Bank and district accounts using a password that was fraudulently obtained from another trickster a the Treasury.

Payments amounting to Shs13.4 billion from OPM accounts had forged signatures of a PS who has cut an image for himself as a “whistle-blower”. The responsible officers both in BOU and OPM should be held accountable. Most importantly, whoever took this money must pay back.

More than meets the eye
That was not all, Mr Kassami said, what happened at the OPM was “unprecedented theft” and that as country we have a big problem because everybody is capable of stealing. Mr Kassami told the MPs that the level of connivance to steal public funds had hit the roof. That our system was never made to foresee the kind of fraud, where tricksters disguised as candid public servants can sit and plan how to beat the system.

But in trying to explain why we have this grand theft in government today, Fr Simon Lokodo, one the frivolous ministers, argues that it’s because the NRM government has spent [the last 26 years] ensuring that there is peace, security and stability and revamping the economy. That the critical bottlenecks of ideological disorientation and a culture that lacked democracy were not critically handled.

That this glaring breach has led to serious consequences as now manifesting in the widespread corruption and economic sabotage. But as long as Parliament continues to be irrelevant in the fight against corruption, I am afraid we are likely to see more of these scandals. The OPM inquiry continues.

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Flowers
Amama Mbabazi
Whether it’s for political expedience rather than moral considerations, nobody knows, but the fact that Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi told Parliament that the government would foot all the funeral expenses for former Erute South MP John Odit, an opposition politician was a welcome move. I heard that the president even paid his medical bills. It’s a clear message that it’s time to bury the hatchet and move on. That, those in power today and those in opposition need to stop fighting and think together. Multi-party politics is not about disagreeing all the time. RIP John Odit.

Frowns
Bwikwe Parent
The reality of rising cases of child abuse in our country continues to bite hard in almost all the districts. It’s nearly unthinkable, but every year thousands of children become victims of crime — whether it’s through kidnapping, violent attacks, or sexual abuse. Some children have been sacrificed in endless ritual murders, tortured and even killed by their parents over theft. This week Daily Monitor reported that Police in Buikwe District were hunting a man who is alleged to have burnt his son’s legs over theft of a mobile phone. This man deserves frowns. The suspect reportedly lost his cool after his son, together with his friends, allegedly stole a phone from their class teacher.