Former UNMC acting registrar in court over abuse of office

The former Acting Registrar of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council (UNMC) has been arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court on charges connected with causing government a financial loss of over Shs1.1b and abuse of office.

Rebecca Nassuna, 57, appeared in a session presided over by magistrate, Abert Asiimwe on Wednesday, and denied the seven charges.

She was therefore granted a cash bail of Shs5m and her sureties were bonded at Shs50m each.

Nassuna is charged alongside Robert Musinguzi and Steven Ssepuuya, both procurement officers from the Ministry of Health. Ssepuuya also denied the charges and was granted cash bail of Shs3m while his sureties were bonded at Shs30m each. However, Musinguzi did not show up in court, prompting the magistrate to issue criminal summons against him.

Prosecution contends that in August 2018, while at Uganda Nurse and Midwives Council (UNMC) offices in Kampala, Nassuna being employed by the Ministry of Health as the Acting Registrar did an arbitrary act of spending Shs1,152,000,000 in procurement of the gazetting of the nurses and midwives register which was not provided for in the approved budget of UNMC and the act was contrary to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) laws.

She is also faulted for allegedly doing an arbitrary act to initiating the procurement of conference services in May 2018 for UNMC staff retreat without confirming availability of funds which was contrary to the PPDA regulations.

Prosecution adds that Nassuna between July18, 2018 and September 3, 2018, she did abuse her position by doing procurement of items which included; midwifery handbooks and receipt books, printing of nurses and midwives Act 1996, continuous legal education dairies and printing of certificates and Identity Cards by paying Shs191,672,200 from M/S Wave Media Graphics Limited without following proper guidelines from PPDA.

Nassuna allegedly did these procurements fraudulently as she did not have supporting documents such as invoices, paid for some items without completion of delivery and making advanced payments in some instances.

For Ssepuuya, it’s alleged that in May 2018 while at the Ministry of Health headquarters in Kampala, being employed as a procurement officer in the Procurement and Disposal Unit, did an arbitrary act of procurement of conference services for UNMC contrary to the PPDA laws and prejudicial to the interests of his employers.

It is alleged that Ssepuuya was able to complete his fraudulent act by preparing and presenting a fictitious evaluation report to the committee without undertaking evaluation.
Court adjourned the matter to September 9 for further mention and for the other suspect (Musinguzi) to appear and take plea.

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