District planner jailed two years after using forged receipts to get Shs66m pay

A district physical planner will spend two years in jail after he was found guilty of forgery that saw him paid over Shs66 million after he forged receipts for licenses worth the same amount.
 
Robert Jackson Macheri, a Bushenyi Local Government District Physical Planner was found guilty of abusing his trust, forging two receipts worth over Shs66 million which he furnished Mota-Engil Africa being payment for inspection and approval of a campsite at Nashonga and quarry campsite at Bugalama.
 
The court heard that Macheri’s actions cost Mota-Engil Africa over Shs66 million since the same money was never reflected on the official financial records of the district and the developer had to pay another extra Shs5 million to get the said inspection licenses.
 
“All the pieces of evidence circumstantially place the accused at the scene of the crime and there are no other circumstances in existence to eliminate that inference,” said Buganda Road Court Principal Magistrate Grade One, Christopher Opit on February 24.
 
According to the magistrate, the convict wasted the court’s time and expenses.
“He is not even remorseful as he decided to abscond from the trial at a point of judgment, implying that he had a guilty mind. I have taken into consideration the sentencing guidelines and sentence the convict as follows; on counts 1 and 2, I sentence the convict on each count to two years and on counts 4 and 5, I sentence the convict on each count to one and six months imprisonment. The sentences are to run concurrently,” the magistrate said.
 
This means that Macheri will spend two years in jail.
 
Court documents show that Mr Macheri received applications for inspection and approval of the quarry and campsites for Mota Engil Africa, a developer.
 
Upon the receipt of the said applications, he issued two letters of assessment for payment of inspection and approval, all amounting to over Shs66m.
 
To that effect, Macheri delivered the letters to Mr Irumba Reagan, a consultant with Mota Engil Africa who later with his colleague, paid the said money to Macheri on November 10, 2017.
 
Further, the court documents show that after about three to four months in 018, the communities near the campsite and quarry made complaints to the district local government and investigations ensued.
 
The investigations indicated that Mota Engil Africa was in possession of approvals for the plans and fake receipts purported to have been issued by the district local government.
 
“The money stated in the receipts was never remitted to or received by the district. As a result, Mota Engil Africa was required to make further payments and obtain genuine receipts,” the court documents stated.
 
It's upon this anomaly that Macheri was charged with offences of abuse of office, obtaining money by false pretence, forgery, and uttering false documents.
 
However, the court found him not guilty of the offence of obtaining money by false pretence for lack of evidence.
 
[email protected].