Kamya orders interdiction of Land Commission boss

The Inspector General of Government, Ms Beti Kamya, has ordered the immediate interdiction of the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) chairperson to pave way for investigations into her alleged misconduct and abuse of office.

In a November 18 letter to the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Judith Nabakooba, the IGG said Ms Beatrice Byenkya’s continued stay in office will interfere with their investigations.

“You are therefore directed/ordered, as the supervising minister, to interdict or cause the interdiction of Hon. Beatrice Byenkya from her duties as chairperson of Uganda Land Commission with immediate effect,” Ms Kamya wrote.

Ms Nabakooba yesterday confirmed receiving the instructions, saying they will take action.

The investigations stem from October 12 resolutions of ULC members on Ms Byenkya’s alleged misconduct.

The members accused Ms Byenkya of being high-handed and malicious, which has affected teamwork.

The members also accuse Ms Byenkya of writing letters to the director of Bank of Uganda and the police to investigate the ULC officers, and alleged fraud in payments of the Land Fund without involving them in the discussion that led to her action.

“The members of the commission condemn the actions of the chairperson, Hon. Byenkya and disassociate themselves from the said actions since they are not premised on any facts adduced to the members of the commission or the secretary,” a letter signed by all the ULC members reads in part.

Efforts to get a comment from Ms Byenkya were futile as our calls to her known phone number went unanswered.

The Criminal Investigations Directorate is also investigating another set of cases of abuse of office and financial loss against ULC officials in regard to the payments of land claimants.

In October, detectives raided the ULC head offices, where they arrested senior officers and seized computers and documents.

Investigations indicate that some of the owners of the bank accounts have names different from those of the beneficiaries of compensation.

The detectives are still hunting for people who withdrew the money, which was sent to different bank accounts by the ULC officers.

In other cases, the suspects are alleged to have paid money to beneficiaries, but the officials at ULC would deliberately not transfer the titles of the property to the government names.

Other beneficiaries have been getting payments without any valuation done as per the government compensation standards.

Detectives have queried the compensation for some of the properties that the officials paid for without basing on any valuation.

Auditor general queries         

The 2020 Auditor General’s report raised queries on the expenditure of funds at ULC.

“The payables balance for land compensation was Shs128b as at June 30, 2020. However, the relevant supporting journals and documents for the liability of Shs9.4b were not availed for review, rendering the genuineness of the liabilities doubtful. In addition, payables amounting to Shs15b were overstated in relation to the claim balance due to the church,” the report reads in part. The Auditor General also found that the ULC does not have a land inventory and database for all  government land and properties under its jurisdiction that are either occupied by tenants, vacant, acquired under compensation (but not yet re-distributed to the bona fide occupants), or acquired and owned by other government institutions and missions abroad.