Permanent Secretary Rose Nassali charged over fraud

Dr Rose Nassali before Anti-corruption Court at Kololo today. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

The secretary to the Judicial Service Commission, Dr Rose Nassali Lukwago has been charged with fraud in connection with over-payment of Shs33.8m to a consulting firm.

Ms Nassali who formerly served in the education ministry was on Thursday arraigned before the Anti-corruption Court at Kololo, over accusations of causing financial loss to the government and abuse of office.

She was jointly charged with former Commissioner Health Services, Dr Opio Okiror, and former Deputy Director of AH Consulting Limited, Cuthbert Kagabo.

Dr Okiror is currently the Commissioner Human Resource at the Judiciary while Mr Kagabo is the Managing Director of Scales Solutions Limited.

The suspects were arrested by officials from the Inspectorate of Government before they were brought to court.

They were charged with offenses of causing financial loss and abuse of office. They appeared before Chief Magistrate Pamela Lamunu Ocaya for plea and they denied the charges.

Ocaya also issued criminal summons against the fourth suspect, Mr Jaffer Kawooya, an internal auditor in the ministry of public service who was not in court.

Charges explained

Prosecution from the Inspector General of Government alleges that in the financial year 2014/15, at the Ministry of Education and Sports Headquarters, Kampala, the four unlawfully facilitated an over-payment to AH Consulting Limited, well-knowing that the acts would cause a financial loss of Shs33,866,000 to the Government of Uganda.

The state alleges that in August 2014, at the ministry, in abuse of her authority of her office, Nassali did an arbitrary act of contracting AH Consulting Limited to recruit five technical staff to work for the ADB V HEST project, well aware that the required five technical staff had already been recruited which act was prejudicial to the interests of the Government of Uganda.

Prosecution alleges that Dr Okiror in performance of his duties as contract manager for ADB V HEST project, in abuse of the authority of his office, arbitrarily contravened the responsibility of contract manager set in the public procurement laws when he failed to ensure that AH Consulting Limited performed all terms of the contract to recruit staff for the ADB V HEST project an omission that was prejudicial to the interests of the Government of Uganda.

Prosecutor Nathan Walusimbi told court that investigations into the matter were complete.

"We pray for a hearing date because investigations are complete. We are going to provide disclosure to counsel for the accused persons," Mr Walusimbi said.

Ms Ocaya granted cash bail of Shs3 million to each of the three accused parties.

She extended the case to September 10, this year, for mention.